Slendermon
by Sharkness
Summary: Based on the Slenderman urban legend. Celebrations at a Trainer School reunion party in Undella Town are cut short when an unknown being starts killing partiers. Soon, even more start to die, as a new Team Plasma arrives amidst the carnage, and all the while the death toll rises... Can anyone survive the wrath of the Slendermon? R&R please! COMPLETE.
1. Arrival

**A/N: Finally. My first Fanfiction, a Pokemon fic based on the Slenderman urban legend. It's been a long wait. After Internet breaking, no access, limited time, and huge writer's block, it has arrived.**

******There is a person I would like to thank here. This fic was originally an idea I had as an exercise to combat writer's block. To be honest, I didn't think it would be that good. But after seeking other opinions, I was persuaded to concentrate on this, as apparently it was "an EPIC idea!". The person who said this helped me with characters, gave tips, encouraged me, gave me the idea to make a series and restored my writing confidence, starting here. Therefore I would like to dedicate this story to that person- the Fanfiction author, EchoingBreeze. Thank you Echo. I owe you a lot.**

**********Competition time- if anyone wants to guess what Pokemon the Slendermon will be, PM me. The winner will receive a guaranteed space for an OC in my next story. That should make things tasty.**

******(Some of you will have noticed that this has changed. Originally, chapter 1 of Slendermon was uploaded in August. However, I was unhappy with it's length and waffling, so I've changed it and reuploaded it. I hope you prefer it).**

******On with the show...**

A lone teenager walked along the main streets of Undella Town in Unova, as the sun set slowly over the town. His name was Aaron Rhodes; 18 years of age, with piercing blue eyes, medium-length messy brown hair and pale white skin marked only by a strange 'V' shaped scar on his left cheek. Aaron had started his Pokemon journey late, at the age of 14, after his original Trainer application was destroyed in a Mail Office fire. After travelling through Unova for two years, gaining a top 16 in the Unova League Conference, he boarded a boat to Sinnoh, where after two years he finished in the top 8 at the Lily of the Valley Conference.

He had originally planned on heading to Hoenn, but the reason for him wanting to return to Unova lay written on a piece of paper folded inside an envelope that was tucked inside his jacket pocket. He had been forced to hitch a lift with one of his Sinnoh friends, another male Trainer called Ollie Coles, on the back of Ollie's Staraptor all the way from Hearthome City to Undella as soon as he could leave. Aaron watched as Ollie and his Staraptor flew off into the distance, before turning back to Undella and starting walking.

He smiled as he looked around; the posh villas up on the main beachfront, the long, sandy beach, the little forested area behind the town. And the smell of the sea breeze...

He then turned to look out at the town. It was early April, not really tourist season, and as it neared 19;00 the evening sun started to set on, officially voted, the world's best beach. Aaron wasn't in the mood for sunbathing though; he had more important things on his mind, so he started walking to the north. As he walked, he opened the letter for the umpteenth time, to read-

'Aaron Rhodes, your old schoolfriend Chelsea Summers invites you to the Undella Town Trainer's School Class of 2003 Reunion Party. Held at Chelsea's house, 6th April 2012, starting at 19:00. Food and alcohol will be provided, but feel free to bring your own. Be there or be square!' And here he was. 10 minutes to go...

Aaron remembered most of the class of 2003, and his fondest memory, despite the many friends he had there, was leaving at the age of 12; even at that age, there were power plays, exclusions of uncool kids, fights, cliques and hierarchies. Aaron tended to drift between most of them, and was an average student, which meant most people never really talked about him in the same bitchy way they reserved for outsiders and low achievers. Chelsea was the class slut (yes, even at that age), leader of the bitch brigade (as Aaron's other friends called them) and one of the hierarchy in the popular kids' group. The only reason she probably remembered to invite Aaron was because her 8-year-old brother Jordan (who was actually quite nice), was best friends with his 8-year-old brother Lee. He'd still go along to meet his oldest and best friends again, but he'd have to be careful around a lot of them.

He then grimaced as he passed a certain house on the beachfront; his family home. He could even see them through the window as he walked- his dad Michael, a Game Freak programmer who worked in Castelia City, blue eyes almost the same as Aaron's focused on looking at Aaron's mum while they chatted. His mum Louise, a sous chef for the legendary Striaton Bros, laughing at what Michael had just said. But he carried on walking.

He would have visited his family if he'd have had the time. However, he always talked to them at least once a day on his Xtransceiver, letting them know everything that had happened to him. Recently, Unova had been experiencing some technical difficulties with its phone signal and its WiFi, and Aaron hadn't been able to communicate, but now, the party beckoned.

He then had a thought, and pulled out a Luxury Ball from his coat pocket.

"Sceptile, come out," he said calmly.

It was a tradition at the Trainer Schools that when a student finished school, they could go to the region's Pokemon Professor and receive their first Pokemon. However, when Aaron arrived to get his Pokemon, Professor Juniper had run out of Unova Starter Pokemon, so she had been forced to give him a Pokemon originally intended for her research, given to her by the Pokemon Professor for Hoenn... a Treecko.

Aaron's stalwart Starter Pokemon had grown a lot since being given to him all that time ago. 2 League Championships and 16 Gym Badges, all achieved by Aaron with Sceptile at his side, all achieved with Sceptile knocking out at least one Pokemon a match. From day one, Sceptile had listened loyally to Aaron, and the two had become the greatest of friends, inseparable to the point where Aaron always walked everywhere with him (except today, but that was because Sceptile had a fear of flying). And boy, was he powerful.

Sceptile's yellow eyes widened as he took in Undella Town; he hadn't been in Undella in 4 years. "Tile?"

"I know boy. Home sweet home."

Sceptile pointed with a long green claw to Aaron's home. "Scep scep?"

Aaron understood. "Not now. I'd love to, but maybe after this party we can go see my parents."

Sceptile grinned widely, nodding.

"However," Aaron continued, "at this party, you're going to need to be in your Pokeball. Chelsea told me no Pokemon out in the house, otherwise it'll get trashed."

"Ti-ile..."

"Yeah, it probably will get trashed anyway, but she said it."

Sceptile nodded, understanding, before Aaron put him back in his Pokeball and continued walking.

"Hey Aaron!"

Aaron recognised that voice: his 8 year old brother Lee, the spitting image of him. Lee could be quite sarcastic and dry to strangers, but he was a very nice, cool kid, and treated Aaron very warmly.

"Yo Lee!" Aaron said, fist bumping his brother as Lee ran up to him. "How are you!"

"I'm great!" Lee cried. "Mum and Dad have told me everything that's happened to you, so I know about all your Gym Battles. You're so strong!"

Aaron smiled modestly. "Thanks. Have you missed me?"

"Nah!" Lee said, laughing. "I'm kidding, it's good you're back." Lee gestured towards home. "Do you wanna..."

Aaron shook his head. "I can't go visit them yet, I'm going to a party at Chelsea's. Maybe tomorrow."

"Hey, I'm sleeping over at Chelsea's with Jordan! Can I come with you?"

"Sure." Aaron turned. "Right. Party. This can't go too badly. Come on Lee."

As they walked the short distance along the New Road to Number 22, Chelsea's house, the front door opened and Chelsea's brother Jordan, Lee's friend, barrelled out of it. "Hey Lee! Wassup?"

"Alright Jord! Wasson then?"

"I've found a really cool place in the forest on Route 14! It's a secret building! We could have a fort!" Jordan then recognised Aaron for the first time. "Hey Aaron. Long time no see."

"How's it going Jordan?" Aaron replied, nodding to him. Jordan shrugged and lost interest.

"Anyway Lee, it ain't far. Wanna come see?"

"Yeah, go on then! See ya big bro!" Lee smiled, and ran off with Jordan.

Aaron sighed, watching the two 8-year-olds go, before adjusting his collar, smoothing his hair and knocking on the now-closed front door. It was time for Aaron Rhodes to party!

Chelsea answered the door, and it was amazing to Aaron how little she'd changed in 4 years. Her straightened light brown hair framed her light blue eyes, which would have looked very pretty, but was instead ruined by a huge amount of fake tan which made her skin look orange. Her slightly pudgy figure had been squeezed into a skimpy black dress on the borderline between clothing and lingerie, complete with her ample cleavage threatening intensely to break free, and on her feet were the mother of all stiletto heels. Ye gods...

Aaron had actually done a double-take at how stupid her remarkably slutty appearance was (she'd looked the same 4 years ago, but Aaron was still shocked), which Chelsea mistook for a double take at her good looks (ha! As if..).

"Look quite good, don't I?" she said smiling, ever the believer that she was better looking than she actually was.

"Er... yeah?" said a tongue-tied, still stunned Aaron, fighting with himself not to say what he wanted to.

Chelsea threw herself at him in a hug in response to his 'compliment'. "Aw thanks hun! Haven't seen you in ages!"

"It's... good to be back," said Aaron, still reeling.

Chelsea stood back. "Well, you're the last one here! Everyone else in the class is in here waiting for you!"

Aaron was slightly shocked at that last statement; he'd never have thought half the class would have turned up, let alone ALL of them. "What, everyone?"

"Yeah, and boy have people been up to loads! Don't just stand there in the cold outside, come in and get a drink! It's great fun!"

And so, ushered inside frantically by the hostess, Aaron Rhodes went to a party, hoping to Arceus it wasn't going to go wrong, and wondering what the Hell his brother was up to now...

**(********)**

An hour after leaving Aaron at Chelsea's for the party, after they'd gone to play beach football with their friends on the beach, and as the late sunset sank below the sea horizon, Jordan and Lee were both running south through Undella Town towards Route 14, laughing and joking all the way. They were having a Wailord of a time, playing around without a care in the world.

As they finally slowed down a bit and started walking on Route 14, where there was a thin layer of fog set in, Lee was getting slightly impatient. "Where is it Jord, where is it?" he kept asking excitedly.

Jordan halted suddenly along the western side of the route, along the tree line. "Here," he said triumphantly, stopping by what looked to Lee like a bunch of ordinary trees. Just normal, thick, oak trees, no different to the rest, except when you looked up at the branches between two of them...

"Knew you were missing something," Lee said, as Jordan untied his favourite red scarf from the branches and tied it around his neck.

Jordan grinned. "Only way I was gonna remember it. This way."

The two boys slipped between the thick tree trunks and weaved their way through a knotted hedgerow chock-full of brambles and thorns. Then, suddenly, it was there in front of them- a small clearing in the middle of the woods, surrounded by tall, imposing oaks. The grass was unkempt and long, rising like a second hedgerow around the centre of the clearing, where a squat, windowless concrete building lay.

The boys walked over to what appeared to be the only door, a hulking slab of metal bolted shut on the outside. With a lot of effort, they forced the bolts back to unlock the door, before they pulled the heavy door open slowly.

"Man that was tough!" Lee remarked, sweat actually forming on his brow. He wiped it away with a sleeve. "We gotta do something 'bout that if that's gonna be our secret base!"

"Yeah, I ain't doing that every time we come here! Come on, let's go in!"

As they stepped inside, they walked into a long corridor down what looked like the entire length of the building. While it was getting dark outside, overhead lights in the abandoned building were inexplicably on, a fuzzy ivory glow illuminating most of the corridor but leaving the sides in shadows.

"That's weird Lee. Why're the lights still on?"

"I dunno. Wait..." Lee stopped to listen to the silence. "No generator noise. This place must still be running off the mains."

Jordan grunted, nodded, and the two set off again down the corridor. There was a glowing light at the end, green, the kind of green light you get from a glowstick, so they started walking towards it. Around halfway down the corridor however, they found doors on each side.

"You take the left, I'll take the right. Ready?" said Jordan.

"Got it! 3, 2, 1..."

BANG! Both boys pushed the doors with all their might, expecting the kind of fight the main door had put up. Instead, they got no resistance, and the doors swung open fast, rebounding off the far wall into their faces.

"Owww..."

Lee's door had opened out into what looked like a cross between an Internet cafe and a library- towering pine shelves on the walls held many thick, bland books, while a bank of unoccupied computers stood on a long table down the middle of the room. The standby lights were still on the computers, meaning the mains power for this room hadn't been killed either, but there was a layer of dust blanketing them all; they hadn't been used in a while.

Lee selected a thick book off the shelves at random, and blew the dust off the cover. Coughing as it blew back in his face, Lee could just make the gold printed words out on the plain black cover- 'Completing Procedures; Pokemon Genetic Enhancement Volume IV Part 1.' There was also a Post-It note on the front cover, which Lee peeled off to read- 'Solution 14 in glass cupboard- extracted WG gene as per page 214.' Lee pocketed the Post-It note. Interesting...

On the back cover, the only words were 'Written by Dr , Scientific Institute of Orre.' Lee was smart- he knew about Orre, the far off desert region where very few wild Pokemon lived, and he knew what genes were. But he was also curious- who was this mysterious 'Ein' person? And why did he take such a vivid interest in how to manipulate Pokemon genetics?

"What've you found Lee?" Jordan shouted from the other room suddenly, nearly making Lee drop the heavy book on his toes.

"Not much," he replied, setting down the book by a computer. "Just books and computers in here. What's it like in your room?"

"You may wanna come and see..."

As Lee crossed the room to the door, he looked back at the book on the table. When he set it down, he'd accidentally moved the computer mouse, which had taken the computer off standby. Now, the screen was on, with a mysterious background of a black and white shield, and a blue 'P'. Where had he seen that before?

"You coming?"

Lee tore his eyes away. "Yeah, on my way."

Crossing the corridor into Jordan's room, the first thing that grabbed Lee's attention were the huge syringes on the back wall, along with large knives, and many different surgeon's tools. There was also a long operating table in the middle, and an open glass cabinet, which contained suspicious looking bottles of liquid in it.

"Reminds me of the operating room out the back of the Pokemon Centre," remarked Jordan.

Lee's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, but operating on what? The books in that room are all on genetics and how to change a Pokemon's genes." His eyes fell on the glass cabinet again. "Wait a minute..."

"What's up?" Jordan asked.

Lee simply grimaced, and took the Post-It back out of his pocket. "Solution 14," he muttered. Walking across to the cabinet, he saw it; among the bottles of different Pokemon species' blood, among bottles labelled with the words 'PW102 Test Subject Blood', a small blue bottle, labelled simply '14'. He took it.

"See this Jordan?" he said, handing the note and the bottle to Jordan. "The post it was on the cover of one of the books. I reckon those," he indicated the syringes, "were used to inject this 'WG gene' into a Pokemon."

Jordan looked mortified. "That's horrible. And look," he pointed to more bottles, labelled in numbers, "these must be more genes. They were trying to make something in here."

"Then where's it gone?" Both boys shivered.

"We gotta show this to the others," said Jordan. "Call the police or something."

"Uh-huh. But first," Lee went out of the room, and looked down the corridor to the green glow, "we gotta see what that is."

Jordan nodded tentatively, and both of them made their way slowly along the corridor, Lee pocketing bottle 14 and the note again as they made it to an archway in the concrete and entered the room at the end...

"Oh shit," said Lee, a poor thing for an 8-year-old to say, but given the circumstance he would have been forgiven.

Jordan whimpered beside him. "Not good Lee..."

On the walls of the final room were many large computer screens, showing different figures of heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen percentage in bloodstream. All of this looked normal (ish), until you looked to the centre of the room. Then you worked out what the figures were for...

There, in a Perspex case in the middle of the room, cables coming from all sides to connect the back of the case to the computers so to provide the data, it stood. It looked terrifying. But the looks weren't the worst bit; the worst bit was that you knew it was alive, because what else was registering on the heart monitors?

The boys stood in scared silence for what seemed like an age, staring at what stood before them.

Jordan broke the silence eventually. "Look on the bright side Lee," he whispered, all bravado and edgy coolness in his voice gone.

"Yeah?"

"Those heartbeat monitors- Nurse Joy showed us a heartbeat that slow when we went to the Pokemon Centre."

"Yeah?"

"The Pokemon that had a heartbeat like that had a deep coma. It wasn't going to wake up, Nurse Joy told me. It was dying in its sleep."

"Jordan?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank God that thing ain't gonna wake up."

Silence.

"Jordan?"

"Yeah?"

"If that's what I think it is, it's impossible. It shouldn't exist, it's just a myth!"

"I know. It's horrible." Both of them shuddered.

"We need to get outta here Lee. Now. Tell the others."

Lee looked at Jordan. Jordan looked at Lee. They both looked at it.

"Run away!" they both screamed, absolutely terrified by it. They both tried to sprint out of the room at the same time, but in the struggle to get through the door first, Lee tripped over Jordan's feet. Falling down, he tried to grab anything as a handle to stop himself from falling, but his left hand missed. His flailing right hand, on the other hand, grabbed a bunch of dangling cables plugged into a mains socket, but his momentum pulled them out. Lee still fell over, adaptor plugs raining down beside him.

"Hey, wait up! Don't leave me Jord!" Lee yelled as he got back to his feet, stumbling quickly after his friend. Sprinting down the corridor, both boys made it out of the door at the end, and, after pushing hard and frantically, slammed it shut, Jordan sliding back the bolts before both of them ran together out of the clearing and off Route 14, not stopping until under the street lights of Undella.

Both of them collapsed, breathless, outside the Pokemart, panting desperately for air.

"Shit man," Jordan said finally. "That is not good. I really hope that thing stays in a coma."

Lee nodded, terrified of what he'd discovered, and silently wishing, like Jordan, that even if it wasn't dead, it wouldn't wake up anytime soon...

**(********)**

Back in the building, there had been consequences when Lee had accidentally pulled the cables out of their sockets in the prison room. The sockets were supposed in a fusebox which was supposed to be locked, so no-one could get into it and accidentally unplug the vital cables, but the door had fallen off a while ago, leaving the exposed sockets, and the exposed cables, which were then unceremoniously pulled out by the falling Lee. Result= the loss of all mains power in the prison room. The computers, the systems that made sure the thing was kept in a state they could imprison it in, everything, losing power fast...

The loud whirring and whining of a backup generator was audible now in the room, as it attempted to power all the screens at once. It was struggling though; it hadn't been designed to power this much, emergency systems only. So the backup generator sputtered slowly into death, the screens fading darker and darker... and the locked case, the prison of the thing, losing power too. And as the backup generator's last noises filled the room, one screen's final data readings painted a grim picture; heartbeat rising. Rising. Rising...

Silence and darkness at last in the screen room. Everything was still.

Then movement was visible in the Perspex case. Long claws twitched. A chest started to rise and fall slowly in a breathing pattern. Then a head tilted from side to side, slowly, as if taking the room in...

Bang! The door of the prison case was rattled as a long, muscly arm struck the Perspex, claws scraping along the inside.

Bang! Again, the door rattled, this time more urgently, struck again by its prisoner.

CRASH! One more time the door was struck, and this time was the last time; the force behind the strike threw the door off of it's hinges to strike the far wall. The thing stepped out of its once-prison, stumbling slightly as its feet, disorientated after its release from the catatonic state it was imprisoned in by force, got used to the feel of ground beneath its feet.

A guttural snarl finally escaped it's lips as it took in its surroundings, it's once prison home. Enraged, it lashed out, swiping at the computer screens with long thin arms, beaded with muscles and tipped with razor-sharp foot-long claws, slashing great long score marks in the plastic screens.

It felt so good to be free at last...

Raising its head to sniff the air, it turned towards the archway out of the prison room, the bolted metal door at the end of the long corridor. Another snarl, and the thing broke into a long, loping run, launching itself at the metal door and sinking it's claws THROUGH THE METAL with one powerful stab. It gave up trying to slice through the steel door however, as it was proving a challenge, so it resorted to a powerful kick from a long hind leg to force the door open with a 'BAM'.

Wrenching it's claws free from the metal, the thing took in the outside fresh air for the first time, the trees, the hedges, the sounds of Pokemon living peacefully in the forest. Freedom.

As the adrenaline of escape ran out, it started to feel slightly woozy and more disorientated. It was only about 2 minutes out of the prison, after all. It needed time in this new and exciting world to get used to it, to get used to itself, to know what it was capable of. Then it would hunt down those who imprisoned it, and make them pay in blood...

It was interrupted when two small Jigglypuff, one male, one female, took the wrong moment to wander into the clearing in search of Berries. At first they didn't notice it, standing there bold as brass outside the door, until the female Jigglypuff walked into its leg as it watched.

"Jiggly?" she said, curious at first. Her gaze travelled the long way up it's body, finishing up at its head, which by now was staring down impassively at her. Then she turned to the male, who was by now on the other side of the clearing. "Puff jigglypuff!"

The male glanced up from the Persim Berry he was eating, and jumped a mile into the air in fright at first sight of it.

"Ly puff!" he yelled, trying to get the female to move away from it. She didn't, and continued looking at it with a gormless smile until it brought up its leg and stamped on her viciously with a clawed foot, mashing her into a pulp against the ground. The eyes of the male widened in terror, but before he could run away it leapt from a standing start and landed, 10 metres across the clearing, next to him.

"Puff?" the small Jigglypuff said, petrified.

The thing tilted its head to look at him, then gave a little shrug and brought a scything claw down in a downward sweep, slicing through the Jigglypuff as he was a slab of warm butter. As the two halves of the Pokemon rolled away, it licked its claw clean of the blood, swallowing the lot.

Glancing up to the now dark sky, lit only by the little pinpricks of stars and by a crescent moon, it snarled again. It had escaped, it had killed, and there was more to come...

The thing bounded off into the darkness. And in Undella Town, as Jordan and Lee sat outside the Pokemart, eating hotdogs and wondering how the party was going for Aaron and Chelsea, they had no idea what they'd just unleashed...

**A/N: ****There we go, Chapter 1, version 2! Please read and review! Criticism is gladly accepted, but please not too harsh.**

**Next Chapter: What has Aaron been up to at this party, while his brother's been running around unleashing monsters? Find out next time.**

**Until next time, adios amigos! :)**

**Sharkness**


	2. Party Time

**A/N: Here we are with the new Chapter 2, half of the original one, made shorter so the story is easier to read!**

******As an M-rated story, a lot of people won't see this story, as Fanfiction's default search doesn't show M-rateds. I'm still proud though- I've had 16 great reviews as of 27/09/12, made someone's official epicness list (I'm honoured, Echo), incurred the wrath of the NSPJ (National Society for the Protection of Jigglypuff), and got 5 favourites. Great start! :D thank you all!**

******This (new) chapter will focus on Aaron at the party, and introduce the partiers. How many will still be alive by the end I wonder?**

"Want a drink?" Chelsea asked Aaron as they walked in to the noise of many people talking at once. She guided him into a pokey little kitchen with the mother of all fridges somehow squeezed into the corner, and as she opened the door, Aaron gawped at the sight of so MANY bottles of lager, vodka, Bacardi, rum, gin and more. Where did she get all this alcohol from?

She saw his face and smiled. "Not bad huh? Been saving it up for this party. What do you want then?"

"Umm, just, a Budweiser please," Aaron said nervously.

"Sure? No vodka? Rum? I'm sure Dallas could mix you a G&T if you wanted it..."

"Wait, Dallas is here?" Oh great, Aaron thought.

Dallas Dean was the class sportstar, and was captain of all the sports teams during school. He was the big cool kid everyone wanted to be like, was very boastful and arrogant because of it, and was one of Chelsea's best friends, which said a lot about him really. The last time Aaron had seen him, it was two years ago in the Unova League Championships- he was over 6 foot tall, had very tough Pokemon Aaron had only just beaten and was, in Aaron's exact words, 'built like a brick shithouse'. Dallas was very proud of himself; Aaron just thought he was a jerk.

Chelsea rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, I said, everyone's here! You're the last one!"

Grabbing the bottle of Budweiser, Chelsea led Aaron through to the living room, where a familiar sight greeted him. All his old classmates, all sat together on the sofas and armchairs, having a chat. The chat subsided and they all turned to him as he walked in, looking at him expectantly.

He quickly forced a smile. "Hey guys. Sorry I'm late." This was met with a jeer from the corner of the room, and Aaron's forced smile turned into a real grin. "Shut up Moses, I know that's you." The jeerer's name was Moses Catta; he had been orphaned as a child, living on the streets, fighting for his life at times, always striving to improve what he had, until he got to school at Undella. Moses had heterochromia, two differently coloured eyes, one blue, one brown, and wore a blue hoodie with jogging bottoms. He was a good friend of Aaron's, but Aaron didn't want to talk to him at the moment.

The rest of the room laughed at Moses and Aaron, then the chatting started again, as Aaron made his way towards a familiar face.

Marco Dupree was black, and a very friendly guy- EVERYONE liked Marco. He was gay, black, and had a lisp; in a school like Undella, where petty bullying was rife, he should have been undeservedly bullied, but remarkably wasn't because he was so nice. Aaron would talk to him all day long.

"Hey, Aaron, take a seat!" He gladly did. "How's it going with you?"

"Not bad Marco. Still travelling with the Pokemon, getting stronger, trying to see as many species as possible. And you?"

"Well, me and Munchlax gave up travelling. Preferred the home life, you know? And now I've got a job at the local Pokemart, starting September. Pretty good, huh?"

"Not bad." The conversation having dried up, they both watched the rest of the room in silence.

It was, Aaron thought, great to see so many familiar faces, even if he disliked a lot of them. Dallas, muscles gleaming more than ever, was smoking while he chatted to Chelsea, Moses the jeerer and another smoking person who unfortunately had his back to Aaron. Then he could see Seamus Flaherty, the school's stereotypical ginger Irishman, and the most religious person Aaron had ever known, rosaries and all; he was sat uncomfortably next to Matt Pike and Cheyanne Alabaster, the lovey-dovey couple of the class, who appeared to FINALLY be dating, after what must have been four years of flirting and denial. They were getting a bit amorous, but it appeared Seamus would rather watch them than talk to the girl next to him, Rida al-Faraj, a very outspoken atheist (she shared a bitter rivalry with the Irish Catholic. It was a wonder she was willing to sit by him).

Moving across the room, Aaron spotted Arianna Leven, blonde bimbo extraordinaire, and walking advert for Health & Safety. He was stunned by the sight of her; Arianna had been pretty aged 12, but now, aged 19, she was stunning! Curvy, delicate and beautiful, and yet completely ignorant of it. Aaron wouldn't go anywhere near her though- she was gossiping with her best friend, the dirty blonde Kassidy Matherson, daddy's girl and complete snob. She made his skin crawl. Hanging around them, looking slightly detached, was the most famous of all the class, Rachael Anderson. She was a self-confessed hippy, regularly stoned on drugs (she looked it now), but was one of Unova's most successful country singers under the name 'Rain.'

Then came the next couple of small groups. First, Dave Claflin, described as a 'redneck' by the harsher class members (Chelsea and Kassidy). It was true, he had a Southern accent, and that he had inherited a pickup truck and several guns on his 16th birthday (the late result of his late father's will). But Dave was a really nice guy, not 'simple' as some claimed, and was one of Aaron's best friends. He was chatting with Saskia Trask, another blonde, but the nicest of them; she was very down-to-earth and friendly, even if she was obsessed with the world of fashion, always buying new clothes for her and her Pokemon. Her and Dave would make a good couple, Aaron had always thought. They were deep in conversation, so Aaron's attempts to hail them failed.

As Marco left Aaron to talk to Arianna, Aaron made his way over to the last group. In it, 3 people. Aaron was with RJ Devon, son of Devon Corp.'s CEO and class nerd (he'd skipped grades), Kelly Grace, normally a shy loner, and a tan girl who, while very pretty, with sparkling green eyes and spiky long dark brown hair, Aaron couldn't remember the name of. She was wearing a grey hoodie and cargo shorts, and was chatting happily with RJ. RJ and Kelly watched him approach and moved away to talk to Seamus however, leaving him with the girl. Nice of them, Aaron thought.

They sat in silence for a moment as the party carried around them. Aaron actually wanted to talk to someone, but the groups were irritating, and his companion looked shy, fiddling with the string of her hoodie. He needed to engage her somehow...

He broke the silence. "Interesting isn't it?"

The girl's green eyes flickered to him. "I'm sorry?" she asked politely.

Aaron waved a hand behind him at the party. "All this. Still, even now, the little cliques and rivalries we had at school dictate it. Some people won't talk to others if they're not in their circle, others won't join a group for fear of losing friends. It's petty."

The girl smiled. "I'm not the only one who thinks that, then. Most of then won't let me join in their conversations, so I talked to Marco. He talks to anyone."

"Marco's just a nice guy," nodded Aaron. "More than can be said for a lot of them."

The girl looked at him. "I didn't catch your name..."

Ah-hah, thought Aaron. There's only one person in the old class who wouldn't know my name... "Aaron Rhodes. And you would be Veronica Starks, the 'new girl'. You were only at school for a year, because your mum moved from Castelia to Undella to be a marine biologist, and moved you to a different school." He sat back, pleased with his memory.

She stared at him, looking slightly shocked. "You.. actually remember me?" He nodded. "None of the others did!"

"Well, they can be forgiven. You were only there for a year."

"Yeah, but even so..." she trailed off, then smiled. "Wow. Thank you. And I'd prefer Ronnie, please." Her face darkened. "Veronica's a horrible name."

"No it's not! Who told you that?"

Ronnie looked sad. "Chelsea, Kassidy, Dallas..."

Aaron was angry. "Tauros Shit!"

"Huh?"

"That's just complete rubbish, and you know it! Kassidy," Aaron sneered her name as best he could, "is an up-herself spoilt little brat with a name that screams 'hit me', Dallas is a arrogant bully and Chelsea's a slut! Who cares about what they think?"

"You really think that?" Ronnie was looking at him with slight admiration.

"Damn straight!" Aaron smiled. "Sorry, rant over. But seriously, Veronica's a lovely name. And you're a really nice person and you're so much better than them. Believe me."

"Th-thanks Aaron!" Ronnie stuttered, smiling at him, looking very admiringly at him.

Watching her face, Aaron thought he saw a slight blush. Was that what he thought it was? "No problem. So, Ronnie or Veronica then?"

"Still Ronnie. Friends call me Ronnie."

"Am I a friend?"

"Yeah?"

"Friends! Party friends!" Aaron said, doing an Inbetweeners impression, making her laugh. "Wait, only a friend? Not... more than friends?" After that blush, he was testing to see if she liked him.

It worked; she blushed. "S-stop it, you're teasing me. Just friends for now."

He pouted as a joke. "Fine, just friends." Her blush was deepening, so he left it.

At this point Dallas interrupted the party by shouting really loudly. "Hey guys listen up!" Silence descended. "Do any of you have to leave Undella tomorrow?"

There was a murmur, but no 'Yeah' from anyone.

Dallas smiled. "Alright then. Tonight, we've seen each other, but we haven't seen each others' Pokemon, which is a bit unfair on the Pokemon. So how's about we do a mini Tournament? Double battles, teams of 2. Come on folks, whadda you say?"

There was no loud shouted 'Yeah' that other parties would have given. Instead, there was the traditional Undella murmur followed by a collective 'Oh, all right then'.

"Alright, find your partners!" Dallas yelled, and pandemonium ensued. Aaron and Ronnie remained seated amidst the chaos, nobody approaching them.

"So, just-friends Ronnie," Aaron said, raising his voice to be heard above the rush, "any good at battling?"

"I was top Four in the Unova League Conference last year." She smiled. "I think that's good enough.

Aaron was stunned; he'd only been top 32 in Unova when he entered the Conference, albeit a year before Ronnie. "Definitely good enough. Want to be my partner?"

"You're on!" They high-fived, and as Aaron went to tell Chelsea, who wrote it down on paper to organise the tournament, Lee and Jordan barged in the front door.

"Lee!" Aaron said, running up to his younger brother but stopping short of hugging him; Lee was shaking visibly (this was partly out of nervousness, having to say he'd found a monster in front of the big kids. He was also still scared though). "Oh God. Lee, what's wrong."

The party stopped as all eyes were on Lee. "A-a-aron? We... found the Slendermon."

Aaron was watching the party over his shoulder, and reactions were interesting; Moses, Seamus, Kassidy and Rida sniggered, but Ronnie went white as a sheet, while Cheyanne and Matt looked nervous and RJ looked very interested.

Jordan whimpered. "Guys, seriously, you gotta see this."

"Forgive some of us for not knowing," came the voice of Saskia Trask, "but what is the Slendermon?"

"An entity in urban legend, described as abnormally tall and thin, with a blank face. His arms can turn into tentacles, he can teleport, and stalks and kills his victims in graphic ways." The answer came almost instantly from RJ the nerd, nicknamed Wiki for a reason.

"Bloody hell, Wiki, that was quick," said Moses, to nervous laughter.

"Now come on!" said Rida. "He's a creepypasta, an Internet creation! He isn't real!"

"Rida, look at my brother," said Chelsea. "Jordan and Lee are terrified, they must've seen something."

"Let's all go!" said Matt. "Help them search for the Slendermon, calm their nerves, yeah?" This idea was met reluctantly by many, but eventually they all agreed, piling out of Chelsea's front room to investigate...

**A/N: There we go! Please read and review! :D**

**Adios amigos!**

**Sharkness**


	3. First Blood

**A/N: Here we go! The new chapter 3 of Slendermon, half of the original Chapter 2. Hope you enjoy...**

As they walked down Route 14 in a big group, Aaron, terrified younger brother in tow, caught up with Ronnie, who still looked nervous. "What's up Ronnie?"

"I-i-it's fine," she said, trying to look brave. "I just... kind of have a fear of the supernatural. And monsters."

Aaron took pity, and wrapped his arms round her in a big hug, which surprised her. "I'm sure it's not real," he whispered, wary of Lee in earshot. "And don't worry, we're all here for you." He paused. "Well, I am."

He patted the blushing girl on the back, let go and moved to the front of the group, with Chelsea and Jordan. Jordan had counted the trees along the route side.

"This is it," he said, voice trembling. His sister patted him on the back, and, turning round to tell everyone to follow, started to walk through the hedge. Aaron walked alongside Moses, who was whistling the tune to the song, 'Monster', by the Automatic, and spooking Jordan. Not helpful.

There, in front of them, was the building, but as Lee approached it for the second time, he screamed, and his brother ran to his side to comfort him. Then Aaron looked up, and saw the open door, the claw marks, sunken a foot deep into the metal door. Everyone else ran up behind them; a few swore when they saw the door.

"Lee?"

"We left it shut," Lee said. "No claws. We left it shut..."

Oh God, thought Aaron. "Guys, you hear that?"

"Yeah, not good," said Dallas, pulling a Pokeball off his belt. "Be prepared guys. It may have escaped."

Kassidy and some of the other skeptics were laughing among themselves, still not convinced at all. Aaron heard one say "it could have been wild Pokemon." A wild Pokemon, with claws like that? Right...

Slowly, people walked into the building, and in the now-dark corridor, several pulled out flashlights to see. Aaron made it to the left hand door, and walked in with Ronnie, Lee, Moses and Seamus.

"The building's power should be on," whispered Lee. "The computers were on standby, but we didn't log in. Now they're off."

"Ah bejesus what about this one?" Seamus, Irish accent thick as ever, had located a laptop in the dust.

"Good idea Seamus," said Moses, picking up the book by Ein Lee had left behind and shining a flashlight over it. "Anyone know who this Ein bloke is?"

"I do." The voice from the doorway came from the person who'd had his back to Aaron at the party. Ah yes, Giuseppe Cagliari. Tall, thin, dressed like a gangster. Well, he was; Giuseppe was infamous as a criminal. The son of Team Rocket Admin Petrel, Giuseppe had gotten fed up with Rocket's incompetence, so beat up an entire squadron of Grunts and left, angering his father by becoming a better criminal than him. If you wanted to know a criminal, ask Giuseppe. If he knew who someone was, they were probably law-breakers.

He cleared his throat. "Dr Ein was chief scientist behind the corrupt Cipher regime in Orre. Creator of the Shadow Pokemon technique, and master of genetic manipulation. Not a nice man."

"Shadow Pokemon?" Seamus asked.

"Fighting machines," said Giuseppe. "The Shadow Process closed the door to a Pokemon's heart, leaving it emotionless and bitter. They could use Shadow moves, and would willingly attack people and Trainers when angry."

"And here we are," said Aaron, coming away from the bookshelf with another thick book. The flashlight played again across the cover, revealing one word: 'Shadow'. "This has got to be the most illegal book in the world, describing how to make Shadow Pokemon."

"Giuseppe, you know the criminal underworld. What does this mean?" said Seamus, turning the now-on laptop to the criminal, showing the shield logo.

Giuseppe looked shocked that Seamus (and the rest) didn't know. "Don't you know? That's Team Plasma's logo. They were the biggest crime organisation in Unova, aiming to separate people and Pokemon, but they were recently busted after a secret attempt to take over the Unova League. But what would Team Plasma be doing with Ein's research? How did they get the only copy of a book instructing how to complete the Shadow process? And, more importantly," he shuddered, "what did Plasma do with it?"

"This was on the cover of Ein's book," interrupted Lee, handing over the post it note. Then he gave them the bottle. "This was in a glass cabinet in the room across the corridor."

"Interesting," Aaron said, reading it. "What's the WG gene?"

"Dunno, ask Wiki," said Moses smiling. "Let's go to the other room, guys. Tell the others."

Crossing the corridor to the right hand room, the wary group was greeted by the sight of Dallas lifting out boxes of powerful microscopes from under the table. "RJ says some of these are powerful enough to isolate DNA strands," he grunted. "What is this place?"

Giuseppe explained to the others about Ein, Plasma and the Shadow book. Faces looked horrified, but still the skeptics didn't care about it.

"So Plasma were experimenting on something here?" said Chelsea. "Shit. But how?"

RJ pulled a blanket off the far wall, to reveal something Lee and Jordan had missed. "With this." A large computer bank, with multiple buttons, a huge screen, several microscope attachments, a printer feed and what appeared to be a line of bottles, ready to be filled by a pipe in the bank.

"What is that?" said Ronnie, apprehensive of the awesomely huge machine.

"A Yoshisama I2XP Genetic Moderation Bank." The room looked stunned, but RJ persevered. "Basically, you find genes with a microscope, take a photo, scan the photo in, then the I2XP artificially manufactures the gene and puts it in carrier bacteria in a solution. You then inject the subject's bloodstream with the solution, and cellular changes happen all by themselves."

"Wiki," said a stunned Dallas, "are you sure this isn't your experiment?"

"Dad has one at Devon Corp.," RJ explained. "He taught me."

"Genes and DNA, in solution," murmured Aaron. "So that's how this WG gene solution was made. And then they injected it..."

"This is scary," said RJ. "I mean, what would Plasma do with all these genes," he looked at the cabinet, "and what kind of monster would it create?"

"A Slendermon." Chelsea said grimly. "And that should be up the corridor."

Edging their way along the main corridor, the last thing a few of them wanted to do, they entered the prison room, to behold... an empty prison case, surrounded by screens ruined by long claw marks. Ronnie started trembling, eyes watering as Aaron hugged her, comforting her. A few others broke down in fear, others swore, but even now the critics and skeptics weren't taking it seriously at all.

"Get out of here guys," Moses said, all swagger evaporated. He was scared too. A mutual nod met his statement; this was terrifying.

Pausing only to grab a few objects (Ein's books, more gene bottles and Seamus' laptop), the group quickly got out of the building and back onto Route 14.

"Well that wasn't very nice," drawled Kassidy, "but honestly, I find it very unlikely there's a monster. I mean, it could just be a place like the P2 Laboratory. You know, the one they made Genesect in, that was closed? It was probably closed before they made anything."

"Shut up Kassidy, that was horrible," said Chelsea. "Someone call the police. We need to warn people."

"About what? And what were you doing in the trees?" came a sudden voice, a precise, clipped accent from behind the group. Spinning round, startled, the group saw an old man, illuminated by the moon, in a brown business suit with a yellow tie, holding a brown briefcase. He was smiling a benign smile though; it was clear he meant no harm.

Aaron spoke first. "The younger ones found a monster, sir. They were spooked, so we went to look."

"Oh dear," the old man chuckled. "A Pokemon?"

"Sort of," said the still-shaking Lee. "A mutated one. And there's a Team Plasma building in there with genetic manipulation equipment and books by genetic scientists and computers and the thing should have been in a prison in there and it's escaped and..."

The old man, surprisingly, wasn't laughing; he looked deadly serious. "Are you sure?" The nods of terror he got from everyone seemed to answer it. "Books you say?"

Aaron nodded, and handed him Ein's Enhancement book, keeping the Shadow book, the bottle and the laptop hidden. The old man perused it carefully before handing it back.

"Escaped, you say? Deary me. It's getting late, you lot go get some sleep. I'll take it from here; I know a few strong people who can take care of it."

He patted Lee and Jordan on the back, handed the book back and whispered to Aaron, "this book's a fake. Take it from me, kiddo, I used to investigate Team Plasma. They didn't have anything like this."

"Sure?"

"Positive. Now get some rest."

"Alright. Thank you. Guys, let's roll."

The group trudged away, leaving the man alone on Route 14. He waited until they were out of sight, then his carefully crafted innocent-old-man smile turned into a concerned face. He opened his briefcase to pull out a laptop not too dissimilar from the one Seamus had found, logged on and opened a program... entitled PW102 Monitors. Two screens loaded- the first, entitled 'Prison Case Feed', normally showed fluctuating figures, but now only showed the words 'Feed Lost'.

The second showed a strong, healthy heartbeat.

"Mierda!" the old man swore in Italian, before closing the laptop and putting back in his briefcase hurriedly. As he did so, his sleeves rose to reveal shield-shaped cuff links: the Plasma logo.

The old man started to walk fast, south towards the bustle of Black City. He knew he didn't need to run; the creature would hunt the children, after all. He hadn't been into the lab and disturbed it. But he didn't have time to waste. The others needed to know as soon as possible...

Back in Undella, Aaron dropped Lee back home to his parents' house. They had a brief reunion, and a chat about what Aaron had been up to, abroad and at the party. It was good for him to be back at home with the family. He told his parents that Lee had been spooked by a wild Pokemon, and that Jordan had cancelled the sleepover (he wasn't lying much). They smiled, said that they'd take care of him, perhaps go on a little trip out of Undella to get him away from it. Aaron hoped they did- this was quite scary.

Then, after saying goodbyes, he walked to Chelsea's, where everyone was saying goodnight. The split in the group was obvious; there were those who believed Lee and Jordan, that there was a creature of some sort, and there were those who thought it was a joke. However, as many departed, thoughts turned to the tournament tomorrow, and people were much happier, sharing jokes and fighting banter.

After Chelsea told him there was no room left in her house, Aaron started to walk away in a huff, but Ronnie caught up to him.

"Where are you going to go now?" she asked, timidly.

"Don't know. Any rooms free at the Pokemon Centre?"

Ronnie shook her head. "Everyone at the party is in them, most of them sharing."

"Well then, has anyone got any space in their room?"

"I have. You could share with me."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

"Thank you," Aaron said. Watching her smile, he could see she was.. happy? "You look relieved."

Ronnie nodded, and then he sensed it.

"You're scared of it, aren't you?" he asked.

She nodded, her eyes wide and afraid. "Come on then," said Aaron. "If you need support, I'll give it."

"Thank you," she said, hugging him, obviously glad he was there.

He hugged her back."No problem. Now let's do what the old man said. Get some rest."

They walked in the Pokemon Centre, past the yawning Nurse on duty, to the rooms out the back. Aaron was disappointed there wasn't a shower or bath in the room, but he changed into just his underwear while under the covers of one of the single beds (which proved a challenge), Ronnie taking the other one.

"Thank you Aaron," she said as he turned the room lights off. "And hey, look on the bright side. The party wasn't that bad."

Aaron smiled and yawned at the same time, a difficult achievement. "'Night Ronnie."

"'Night Aaron. Don't let the bed bugs bite."

And so they drifted off to sleep...

Marco Dupree, on the other hand, didn't. His mind was still buzzing after the visit to the abandoned lab, buzzing out of curiosity. He needed to see more, and there was a little detail in the prison room everyone else had missed. He waited 20 minutes in the dark, then, while RJ snored in the bed beside his, he crept out of the room stealthily.

Walking down Route 14, he counted the trees carefully, until he reached the correct gap, and pushed his way through the hedgerow. The building in front of him was lit by a sliver of a moon as he strode towards it, putting his foot in something squishy. Looking down, he saw the squashed carcass of the Jigglypuff, trodden into the ground, completely missed by the group earlier.

'Gross,' he thought as he snuck his way through the door into the corridor, scraping the sticky remains off his shoes against the wall. He grabbed a flashlight and a Pokeball off his belt. "Munchlax, go!"

Marco's favourite Pokemon leapt out onto his shoulder, then shivered at the chilling atmosphere of the abandoned laboratory. Silently, they crept into the prison room, shadows filling every corner, and Marco found it; there, nestled under a computer desk, a laptop bag.

"Munchlax, stay on guard," he said, and Munchlax nodded, tiptoeing over to the doorway. Marco positioned the flashlight on the desk so it shined on the laptop screen, and set to work tapping the keyboard, opening up random documents and scrolling through until, by luck, he found something.

"Email from: Undella Lab, to: Ghetsis Harmonia re: PW102," he read aloud. "My Lord, I regret to inform you that while the genes injected have had the optimum level of success in improving the test subject, the Shadow treatment is slowly mutating them beyond our control. Already the subject's brain is slowly overpowering the control we previously had. If this continues we will lose PW102 and chaos will ensue; to overcome this I suggest imprisonment in a catatonic state until we can remedy the situation. For the sake of Team Plasma, it would be best. I await your command."

Then he read the next email, the reply from 'Ghetsis Harmonia'; 'Understood. Imprison.'

Interesting, he thought, turning the computer off. So Plasma were losing control of their creation... his thought train was interrupted by a noise like a rustling behind him. "Munchlax?" he said aloud, not turning. Something hit his shoulder with a wet thud. In horror, he turned...

To see his Munchlax's body, head severed completely, bleeding heavily onto his shoulder.

"Munchlax!" he yelled, shocked at the loss of his favourite Pokemon. Feeling sick, he threw the body off, where it hit the floor with a thud. He grabbed the flashlight, turned around and tried to illuminate as much of the darkness as possible, but only ended up illuminating one thing...

The imprisoned creature, PW102, the Slendermon. In all it's vicious glory. It towered over him, looking down at him from on high. Surprisingly, the thing that Marco found most scary wasn't the height, or the claws. It was the way it chewed his Munchlax's head, almost nonchalantly, with a row of inch-long canines that looked deadly, and the way it spat out his beloved Pokemon's head, watching it roll to his feet while blood dripped to the concrete floor from its terrible teeth.

Marco Dupree opened his mouth to scream, and became the first human victim of the Slendermon, as long claws sliced through his neck and spinal cord with unearthly speed. Marco didn't even get to make a final noise as his headless body slumped to the floor, and his decapitated head rolled to a rest beside his Pokemon's.

The Slendermon licked its claws clean of blood, and stared down emotionlessly at the deceased human, before it disappeared away, back into the darkness where it came from, searching for its next victim...

**A/N: Well, who's the mysterious old man I wonder? I'll give you a clue, he's a Black/White game character. And mwahaha, human death! I'm sure it won't be the last...**

**Next time- The battle tournament begins! **

**Adios amigos! Please read and review!**

**Sharkness**


	4. Battle On!

**A/N: Chapter 4 has arrived! Boo-yeah! :) **

**This chapter is half of the original chapter 3, ****which sees the taking place of the Double Battle Tournament, and more besides. So on with the show...**

Dawn rose, slowly, over Undella Town, the golden light filtering in through the windows of the Pokemon Centre, waking up the partiers. Several were hungover from the night before, having stayed up even later with even more alcohol, while others were still anxious about the Slendermon, and doubtful that what they had seen in the abandoned Team Plasma laboratory was fake, as the old man had said. All however were looking forward to the big battle tournament that would take place that day...

After they'd woken up and joined the others from the Pokemon Centre around the breakfast table, Aaron and Ronnie watched those who'd slept over at Chelsea's arrive; Moses, Dallas, Giuseppe, Kassidy and Chelsea herself, who made a beeline for Aaron.

"Just to let you know," she said quietly to him, "your parents have left Undella with Lee and Jordan. They've taken them on a little vacation to Opelucid City."

Aaron was relieved; if this actually did blow up, at least his parents and brother weren't involved. "And they told you this this morning?"

"Uh-huh. Don't worry, they used Fly to get out of here. They're safe." Chelsea then turned to the room at large. "Okay good morning folks! Now listen up! Today's our battle tournament fiesta! Everyone's in pairs, only two Pokemon each, you're allowed to change Pokemon between battles, you're only allowed one Pokemon at a time in battle, and if you only have one Pokemon and your partner has more than two, you are allowed to use one of theirs."

Some people looked happy about those rules, others protested. Chelsea continued. "Now I'll hand over to our non-participating referees, Rain and Marco..." She trailed off. "Wait, where is Marco? Anyone?"

"Umm, he was in my room," said RJ. "His stuff's all gone though, he must have left overnight."

"Fine, we only have one referee. Rain, strut your stuff!"

Rain, aka Rachael the hippy, stood up, looking a lot more focused than last night. "Okay, I have with me the draw. First matches are... Giuseppe and Moses vs Rida and Kelly, RJ and Seamus vs Dave and Saskia, Chelsea and Dallas vs Matt and Cheyanne, and Aaron and," Rain paused, forgetting Ronnie's name, "Veronica vs Kassidy and Arianna. Let's go people! Giuseppe and co, you're up first!"

"Not a bad draw, Kassidy and Arianna," Aaron commented to Ronnie as they walked outside into a lovely April morning, the tiniest spot of dew on the Undella ground. "Kassidy's daddy bought her her Pokemon, so they're strong, but I doubt she can use them. And Arianna has two ditzy Delcatty. Simples."

"You reckon?" asked Ronnie. "We'll see. It would have been nice if Rain remembered my name though..."

Aaron smiled, as they sat down with the others outside the Pokemon Centre to watch the first matches. Giuseppe and Moses only had to use one Pokemon each, Shiftry from Giuseppe and Druddigon from Moses, to beat Rida's Herdier and Pawniard and Kelly's Gothorita and Dragonair. Giuseppe and Moses would face Dave and Saskia, after a stunning fight in which Dave's Gyarados and Saskia's Ninetails tore apart Seamus' Xatu, his Drifblim and RJ's Purrloin, but RJ's Alakazam, his team's last Pokemon standing, took out the mighty Gyarados with a surprise ThunderPunch before finally succumbing to a Flamethrower from Ninetails.

If Aaron and Ronnie won, they would face Chelsea and Dallas in the semi final; using Dallas' Houndoom alongside her Kirlia and his Charizard and Steelix (Dallas had lent Houndoom to her. All three of his Pokemon Aaron had faced before, in the Unova League Conference), they beat Matt and Cheyanne, who used a Nidoking and Tauros (Matt) and a Nidoqueen and Miltank (Cheyanne). Aaron thought it was quite sad, the way the couple had organised their parties to have gender equivalent species like that. But there were more pressing matters to consider; the match against Kassidy and Arianna beckoned.

"Alright guys, play ball!" Rain shouted, the rest of the partiers spectators, ready to watch a fight, cheering them on.

Kassidy went first. "Milotic, dazzle us!" she yelled, releasing the graceful cream-coloured sea serpent to collective 'Ooh's; Milotic was beautiful.

Then came Arianna. "Delcatty!"

Predictable, thought Aaron, as the first of her two Delcatty arrived with a yawn. Turning to Ronnie, he asked, "Which one do you want to take on?", but realised she was trembling again.

She noticed his expression of concern. "Hydrophobia," she said, nodding to Milotic. "Fear of water."

"Good job I've got the 'mon to deal with water!" Aaron said out loud. "Sceptile!"

Aaron's stalwart entered the competition early, looking at Milotic with a hungry eye- he hadn't battled a Water-type for ages.

Ronnie regained a little confidence. "And I'll take on Delcatty! Excadrill!"

As the female Subterrene Pokemon appeared, Aaron looked impressed- Ronnie's Excadrill was in great condition. This looked promising.

"Delcatty, use Attract on Excadrill!" shouted Arianna, jumping the gun. The move, female on female, failed completely.

"Milotic, Ice Beam on Sceptile," Kassidy drawled, and Milotic prepared to launch the super-effective attack.

Aaron was unfazed, merely nodding to Sceptile, who dodged the attack at the last possible moment with blinding pace; after being outpaced in the Unova League Conference, Aaron had sprint-trained Sceptile a lot before taking on Sinnoh, and it paid off. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ronnie smile in appreciation, and grinned. "Nice work boy. Now, Energy Ball!"

"Excadrill, Metal Claw on Delcatty!" he heard Ronnie yell beside him.

"Milotic Scald!" The burning water hit Sceptile's Energy Ball with a minor explosion, not damaging anyone, but the satisfying clank made as Excadrill's claws critically-hit Delcatty to knock it out was music to Aaron's ears. Plus, in the ensuing explosion, Sceptile had managed to hit Milotic with a strong Leaf Blade, damaging it a lot.

As Arianna's other Delcatty entered play, looking very far out, Kassidy lost it. "That's it! Milotic, Hydro Pump on Excadrill!"

Milotic's attack hit Excadrill hard, the Subterrene Pokemon wheezing as it was hit with a super effective Wake-Up Slap from Delcatty at the same time. Then fire blazed in her eyes; she was ANGRY.

"Now, Aqua Tail that Sceptile!" Kassidy continued.

"Not so fast! Excadrill, Earthquake!"

Aaron realised what Ronnie was doing. "Sceptile jump up when Excadrill hits the ground!" He heard people clap behind him- the crowd knew what they were doing too.

As Excadrill's claws hit the ground and shook it beneath their feet, the supremely agile and speedy Sceptile became airborne in a backflip, protecting himself from the worst of the Earthquake on the ground. At the same time, while the Earthquake damaged Milotic and Delcatty, it also disrupted the Aqua Tail bound for Sceptile, making it miss. As Milotic ploughed on, out of control, and Delcatty yowled in pain, Aaron sensed it was time to finish it.

"Sceptile Leaf Storm!"

"Tile!" roared his Pokemon as he landed, summoning an almighty Leaf Storm that blew the Milotic away. People were murmuring among themselves, shocked that Sceptile could unleash such a devastating attack. Milotic was finally down, and after another Excadrill Metal Claw, so was Arianna's other Delcatty. It was now Excadrill and Sceptile vs Kassidy's last Pokemon...

"How dare you!" Kassidy was now enraged that the strong Pokemon Daddy had bought for her had been knocked out. "Vaporeon, get them!"

Her last Pokemon caused a stir; very few people had ever seen a shiny Vaporeon before. However, it looked disinterested in battling, and just yawned at a curious Sceptile.

"Toxic," said Ronnie, surprisingly calm at the arrival of another feared Water-type as she watched Excadrill successfully poison Kassidy's Pokemon, who shuddered as the venom entered its body.

"Sceptile..." Aaron was about to order a Leaf Blade from his Pokemon, but didn't have to- Sceptile was handling himself for this one as he ran forward...

Only Vaporeon was having none of it. Gritting its teeth against the poison, it summoned an almighty wave with Surf, which crashed straight into the oncoming Sceptile and washed Excadrill away. How Sceptile had not been knocked out was anyone's guess, let alone the already weakened Excadrill- Kassidy's father had obviously bought his daughter a very strong Pokemon.

Aaron watched Sceptile shake himself and refocus on the battle, watched Excadrill gradually pull herself up, weary and tired, watched Vaporeon grimace as the poison took its toll. Time to end this, he thought, before Excadrill gets taken out.

"Alright Sceptile, Leaf Blade now!"

"Excadrill, one last Shadow Claw!"

The two Pokemon charged Vaporeon, Excadrill somehow finding enough willpower to rise up and rush forward. Two sweet hits on Kassidy's injured Pokemon, and even if an Aqua Tail hit Excadrill and took her out as well, the battle was Aaron and Ronnie's when Sceptile landed another Leaf Blade. Success!

"Good work partner," Aaron said to Ronnie as they both healed up their Pokemon afterwards. "Especially against Water-types."

"Thanks," the tan girl said demurely, collecting Excadrill's Pokeball. "I just hope there aren't any more."

"Don't worry, it's Dallas next. Fancy playing with Fire?"

She grinned. "Easy! Let's do this!"

As they returned to the others, they learned that Dave and Saskia were through to the final- Giuseppe's Shiftry and Krookodile, and Moses' Dewott and Boldore couldn't handle the combo of Dave's Skarmory and Saskia's Ninetails. It was past lunchtime, and they were all hungry, but a strong battle was about to take place before them now. Would it be worth missing lunch...

"Houndoom go!" started Chelsea, using the Pokemon she'd borrowed from Dallas first. He merely grunted, and threw out his Steelix. Now Aaron had to choose between Pokemon...

He made up his mind. "Marowak," he said simply, letting her out. Marowak never really liked battling, ever since Aaron rescued her from an underground battle circuit in Sinnoh, where cruelty to Pokemon was common. When she did though, it was pretty good.

"And me next! Flygon!" said Ronnie. Aaron's eyes widened. He'd never seen a Flygon before, not even among the strongest Trainers. Damn, this girl was good!

Ronnie wasted no time though. "Flygon Hyper Beam on Houndoom!"

"Marowak, Flamethrower on Steelix," said Aaron, still marvelling at the obvious strength of the Flygon before him. Houndoom whimpered lightly as Hyper Beam struck, but Steelix countered the Flamethrower with Dragonbreath.

"Now Houndoom! Get Flygon while it's recharging with Thunder Fang!" Chelsea yelled, as Ronnie just smirked.

"Marowak, another Flamethrower would be good," said Aaron, intent on watching Houndoom's mistake, completely missing Marowak hit Steelix and dodge an Iron Tail.

The dog's jaws, crackling with electricity, clamped down on Flygon's arm... to no effect.

"Flygon's a Ground-type, genius," sneered Ronnie, enjoying her moment. "Dragon Claw."

Still clamped onto Flygon's arm, Houndoom couldn't dodge the claw attack, and nor could it dodge another intense Hyper Beam that floored it.

Chelsea snarled as she returned her rented Pokemon. "Fine. Kirlia." Her own Pokemon joined the fray with a cry.

"I got this," said Aaron, returning Marowak. "Banette, get her!"

Banette was Aaron's resident Ghost-type, and the team prankster, found originally causing mischief in the Dragonspiral Tower. Aaron had to rein him in sometimes, before he caused too much damage, but Aaron put up with that, as Banette's skill more than made up for it.

The Ghost-type appeared out of his Pokeball... behind Chelsea. He tapped her on the shoulder, laughing as she screamed, before leaping back to the battlefield and straight into action with a Sucker Punch to Steelix's head, followed by a Confuse Ray which stopped Kirlia's attempted Magical Leaf in its tracks.

"Steelix, enough of this! Iron Head that Flygon!" yelled a tired Dallas, but alas, it was not to be- Banette was quicker, pulling off a Shadow Ball, and Steelix was finally floored when Flygon let out his own Flamethrower. Two down, and as Banette turned to the still-confused Kirlia, who'd only managed an Imprison on Banette's Sucker Punch. Such a shame it didn't prevent the Gunk Shot Banette fired, or the Shadow Ball, or the Shadow Claw, or finally Flygon's Dragon Claw.

"Jeez, all that to take out one Kirlia," Aaron muttered, before raising his voice. "Good work Banette! Swap with Marowak!"

"Down to you boy! Charizard!" yelled Dallas, releasing his hulking, huge main Pokemon. Aaron was surprised Ronnie still hadn't switched.

"Charizard, Fire Blast!"

"Flamethrower!" both Aaron and Ronnie yelled in reply, the three Fire attacks colliding brilliantly in a flash of orange, but when the smoke cleared Marowak had disappeared from sight.

"Now Charizard, Flamethrower!"

"Not so fast! Marowak use Dig!" Aaron shouted.

Dallas laughed, many of the crowd looking at Aaron like he was stupid as Marowak popped her head and arms out of the ground, only a few yards from the hovering Charizard. "Why'd you do that Aaron? Ground type moves don't work on Flying-types, genius!"

"It wasn't to attack," grinned Aaron. "It was to sneak up and get you in my sights. Perfectly." He smiled again. "Marowak, Rock Slide."

The 'O' look on Dallas' face was priceless. Charizard, as a Fire/Flying type, was doubly weak to the strong Rock Slide that hit home, and as it fell to the ground hard, Flygon hit it with his last Hyper Beam. Knockout!

"Well I think that's it folks," said Rain as a dejected Dallas returned his faithful Pokemon. "Our finalists will be Dave and Saskia, vs Aaron and... Ronnie. Back in 30 minutes folks, but first, very late lunch!" Ragged cheers.

"Finally got your name right huh?" said Aaron to Ronnie back in the Pokemon Centre.

She smiled. "At last. We could actually win this you know."

"I don't know. Dave's Gyarados is freaky strong, and from what I've seen we don't have an answer to his Skarmory. Saskia's Ninetails we can handle, but I don't know what her other surprise Pokemon is."

"I know. Trust me, it's rubbish. Send out the same team we had last battle, they can do it."

"You're the boss."

They both grabbed a bite to eat, before, an hour later, under the hot afternoon sun, they prepared for the epic final battle. This was it; class reputations on the line, and a small fortune to be made (mostly Giuseppe's money. No need to ask where he got it from).

"Let's roll!" yelled Rain, eager to see a good battle.

Dave went first. "Ah'm countin' on ya Gyarados!" His mega-freaky-über-powerful first Pokemon took centre stage.

"And you Ninetails!" Predictable; Saskia's strongest too. Now for Aaron and Ronnie's strategy...

"I've saved the best for last! Go Altaria!" yelled Ronnie. She'd told Aaron before battle about her número uno, her knight in shining armour and the journeys they'd been on- her and Altaria were as close as Aaron and Sceptile.

"And Marowak!" Aaron's Ground-type, fresh from a healing, leaped into action immediately, an Iron Head landing on Gyarados and a Bone Club hitting Ninetails before Dave and Saskia could open their mouths.

"Altaria Sing on Gyarados!" yelled Ronnie before Dave could take action, and it worked- Gyarados was snoring like a baby.

Saskia gritted her teeth. "Damn! Ninetails, Inferno!"

Again, the battlefield was awash with fire, and again Marowak was absent afterwards, even though Altaria took the hit (it barely seemed to work though).

"Now Marowak! Dig up beneath Gyarados, and use Rock Slide!" Aaron was using the same tactic as the last round. By getting under Gyarados, Ninetails couldn't hit Marowak, while Marowak could hit both opponents with a super effective Rock Slide. And it did.

"Now Altaria, use Thunder on Gyarados!" yelled Ronnie, and the stunning bolt of electricity nearly wiped out Dave's Pokemon, who was still fast asleep and not listening to Dave's commands.

"Ninetails, Flamethrower," said Saskia, trying to stay calm under pressure, and was rewarded when the flames hit the off-guard Altaria. But Marowak was up and out of the ground, leaping up behind the fox with a Bone Club attack that smashed into the back of Ninetails' head. At the same time Gyarados snapped awake with a roar however, and a strong Dragonbreath nearly hit Altaria, who blocked it with a Dragon Pulse. Once again however Aaron had got Marowak to Dig underground while smoke from the explosion covered the battlefield, and once again the opponents were hit with a super-effective Rock Slide. They'd finally taken down Saskia and Dave's stars; hopefully the rest of the match would be easier.

"Damn you're good," said Dave, smiling as he recalled Gyarados. "But ah'm not givin up yet! Mawile!"

"Smoochum, your turn," said Saskia, throwing out her other Pokemon.

Aaron grinned; their strategy would work perfectly. "Ronnie, you take Smoochum. I'll handle the Mawile." He returned Marowak. "Go Heracross!"

Aaron's Heracross, the last member of the four Pokemon team Aaron had on him, loved battling, anything and everything. He'd once bitten off more than he could chew when he took on a Combee swarm for their honey, but after being rescued by Aaron from the Vespiquen leader, he still battled anything, just to get stronger.

"And I'll change," said Ronnie, returning Altaria. "Go Gengar!"

Ronnie's Ghost-type appeared with a big grin and a glint in his red eyes as he faced Smoochum.

"Mawile Sucker Punch that there Herarcross," commanded Dave, going first.

"Wait for it Heracross..." Aaron waited calmly as Mawile closed the gap, "now! Brick Break!"

BAM! Mawile was hit hard and fast, as was Smoochum; it's Ice Beam had failed to hit Gengar, who threw a successful Shadow Ball in response.

"Now Heracross, Close Combat!" yelled Aaron, taking initiative, and Heracross landed several big hits on Mawile, but as he let his guard down, Mawile batted Heracross away with an Iron Head. Meanwhile Saskia had exploited Gengar's weakness to the Psychic-type with a Psychic attack, but Gengar had been quick to counter with another Shadow Ball, and followed it up with a Hypnosis to put Smoochum to sleep. Finally draining off Smoochum's HP with a Dream Eater, Gengar knocked it out, in time to watch Heracross counter Mawile's Crunch with a Megahorn, and to finish it off with a Brick Break...

"That's it folks!" yelled an excited Rain. "The winners of the Undella Doubles Tournament, the stunning fighting pair, Aaron and Ronnie!"

The crowd cheered for them for once, which was nice; Aaron and Ronnie's battle style had obviously won them over. As they finished higging Giuseppe handed over the money, and Aaron started grinning like the Cheshire Cat; that was a lot of cash.

"Party in the Pokemon Centre! Come on!" yelled Moses, to further cheers, and a happy crowd surged in.

"Nice work folks," said Dave, smiling and shaking their hands. "Them folks sho' didn't think you'd get this far."

"Great battle," Saskia added. "You really must treat your Pokemon well, to get them to that level."

"Thanks guys," said Aaron, humble. "You were great opponents. A good team together too." This was met with a little blush from Saskia, before they left Aaron and Ronnie.

"Hey Aaron," Ronnie said, as they were handed their Pokemon back from Nurse Joy, "did you notice..."

"Uh-huh," Aaron grinned. "I knew it. Can't hide anything from me."

Ronnie pocketed her Pokeballs. "Well, I'm gonna go freshen up. See you in 15 minutes."

"For another party," Aaron said, rolling his eyes. "At least the others might talk to us this time." He walked off, leaving Ronnie as she went to freshen up in the unisex bathroom at the Pokemon Centre. Cold water dripping off her face as she splashed it from the tap, Ronnie reached for a towel. As she dried herself off however, she noticed something on the bathroom shelf- a lone Pokeball.

"Hmm..." Ronnie turned it over, to read the words 'This Pokemon belongs to Marco Dupree, Undella Town.'

"Why would Marco leave here, and leave his Pokemon behind?" Ronnie wondered aloud, before shrugging. Spraying some perfume, she walked out, to be greeted by an ashen-faced RJ.

"RJ, what's up?" He merely handed over a piece of paper, which, when Ronnie unfolded, said 'RJ. Gone to investigate. Be back soon. Marco.'

"On my bedside table," RJ said. "I missed it this morning. What do we do?"

Shuddering, both of them walked out the Pokemon Centre to look down Route 14, empty and yet so forbidding. It was past 4 o clock now, what with the lengthy battles and celebrations, and the route was starting to look a little dark now.

"I've gotta know," RJ murmured, starting down Route 14, "what happened to Marco?" He made it all the way down to the hedgerow entrance to the old laboratory, with Ronnie in tow, before he stopped nervously, pointing at something, trying to get Ronnie to see it. Then she saw...

There, framed in the treeline, blocking their path to the laboratory, its back to them feasting on the carcass of a Tropius, was a horrible sight. Ten foot tall, with long claws shredding the Tropius' flesh, long arms with muscles like beads on a wire and long, thin yet muscly legs. Even only seeing it from the back, it could only be one thing...

"Slendermon," Ronnie whimpered, reaching for her Pokemon on her belt.

"Ronnie," RJ whispered cautiously, "let's just back away slowly. I don't think it's seen us."

Ronnie nodded soundlessly, frightened beyond belief as she edged away with RJ until the thing was out of sight. Then they ran.

"We gotta tell the others," RJ said grimly, as they slowed down outside the Pokemon Centre. "That thing exists. So Plasma did make it..."

"Warn them," Ronnie panted. "That was horrible."

**(********)**

PW102, aka the Slendermon, licked its dripping claws and walked away from the Tropius carcass. It wasn't the only carcass deep within the woods of Route 14, far from it. Around 20 so far, and as its powers returned gradually, more and more would die too.

The Slendermon knew that others would come looking for the first human. It knew that two of them were behind it, watching in fear as it fed. It had heard their frantic, fast footsteps as they ran away, no doubt to warn others about it. Good. That's why it was such a good hunter; it knew when not to kill, when to inspire fear in its future victims, to make them paranoid and scared, fearfully in wait of when it would hunt them down and kill them.

And besides, it's trap had worked. It could smell something on one of the humans- a fragrance, perhaps- and the smell lingered, mixed with the scent of fear, a trail leading to more of them. It knew where they were hiding from it.

Now, it merely had to wait for nightfall, and then, the blood of the humans would run...

**(********)**

Aaron was one of the first to notice the state of Ronnie and RJ as they ran into the Centre, and ran over immediately. "Guys, what's happened?"

As people gathered around and Aaron comforted a terrified Ronnie, RJ told the room about finding the note, finding Marco's missing Pokemon, and the sight that greeted them as they attempted to go to the laboratory. A lot of people panicked, but Kassidy predictably led the doubters.

"Don't be stupid," she sneered. "That thing can't exist, it's an online myth! And you heard what the old man said, that stuff's fake! It's probably there to make you all paranoid and scared."

"Kassidy, shut up," said Rida, calmly. "I didn't believe in the Slendermon, but how can I not when these two react like this? What else would cause this?" This was met with cheers.

"Oh Lord hear our prayers, that our brother Marco is in a better place now, that your mercy will protect us against this demon, to be sure," proclaimed Seamus, kneeling in prayer and crossing himself.

"Amen," said Giuseppe, and a lot of the room followed suit (even Aaron, who'd never ever considered himself religious). Rida the atheist tutted.

"So what do we do now?" asked Chelsea.

"We all stick together," answered Moses. "All of the rooms in the Pokemon Centre are free tonight, so we all sleep in here. Nurse Joy will be on the front desk watching the door, and if we have someone patrolling the corridor outside the rooms, switching over from time to time, that should cover it."

"This is ridiculous..." started Kassidy.

Matt cut her off. "Kassidy, even if you think it's ridiculous, go along with it, for the rest of us."

Matt's plea appeared to work. "Tch, fine," said Kassidy. "But who's gonna be in the corridor?"

"I'll do 8 til 10," answered Moses.

"I'll do 10 til 12," Giuseppe said.

"I'll do it, 12 til 2," Chelsea said.

"Me 2 til 4," volunteered Dallas.

"Me 4 til 6," said Dave.

"And I'll do 6 til 8," Aaron said last. "And guys, don't stay up all night. Get some sleep, or if you want to stay up on guard, take turns." People nodded.

"Alright folks," said Rain solemnly. "Get some food, chill out for a bit, then go back to the rooms and get some kip. We'll see you all in the morning."

And so, they all returned to partying and drinking, but celebrations were muted. Tonight would be a long old drag, and the tension was mounting- would this Slendermon, if it was real, attack?

**A/N: Slendermon, Slendermon, you cunning boy. Now the partiers are screwed...**

**Next chapter- remember the mysterious old man? Well, lets meet him and his friends. You all know them :)**

**As always, please read and review! Adios amigos!**

**Sharkness**


	5. Enter Team Plasma

**A/N: Chapter 4. Yee-hah! :D**

**Remember the mysterious old man? Well, here we go. The unmasking of a new key player in the story, next...**

While the partiers were having a party, albeit dampened by Ronnie discovering the Slendermon, life was normal in a large public garden on the western side of Striaton City. The Pikachu and Pidove shaped hedges rustled slightly in a cool, light evening breeze. A lone gardener was stood on a precariously wobbling ladder, trimming the beak on one of the Pidove bushes at the north east of the garden, whilst his Scyther companion took care of the overhanging branches of the overgrown trees on the outside. Another gardener and his Scyther were in the south west section of the garden; this gardener was planting Berry trees and flowers in a new flowerbed, whilst his Scyther lay snoozing under a tree, the gardener's hat covering the mantis' face. The only other people in the large garden were a small group of young children in the northwest corner, playing with their Pokemon and feeding some Pidove and Patrat pieces of bread. Oh, and the old men..

Two old men in brown leather suits were sat on one of the well-maintained benches by the fountain, not disturbing anyone or saying anything. Anyone who would have walked past them coming through the garden would have ignored them- the old men were minding their own business. But if you focused your gaze on them, you'd notice little things about the old men- their different colour ties, one red, one brown. The strange little hats they wore- crosses between fezzes and Trilbys. The 6 Ultra Balls on their belts- only the best of Trainers could afford Ultra Balls with their winnings. And even then, even the strongest Trainers would only have 1 or 2 Pokemon so strong that they needed an Ultra Ball to be contained in. These two gentlemen had 12 between them. These weren't ordinary old men; these were much much more than that.

For a few moments, they were silent, watching the world pass them by. Then the one in the red's gaze lingered on the children feeding the Pidove, and his face changed into one of sadness and slight anger.

"Dishgushting," he said in a thick Dutch accent, shaking his head sorrowfully.

His companion turned to him, a look of curiosity on his face. "How so, my friend?" he asked in an emotionless, delicate tone.

Red waved an angry hand at the scene. "Not thish! How could HE," the word was forced out, "want to deshtroy thish? Humansh and Pokemon, living together in perfect balanshe and harmony. Ishn't that what we all wanted? And yet shome people deshided to undermine ush and sheek power for themshelvesh. Dishgrasheful."

His companion nodded in agreement with what he said, before his eyes shot open in fear. "Please don't tell me that was your accent coming out?"

Red gasped, before his voice changed into a clipped precise tone like his companions. "Do you know how hard it is to hide a Dutch accent? At least your German accent is not as strong as my accent! You have it easy!"

"Just try your best, okay?" Brown said. "We may not have wanted the outcome, but we are hunted men because of it. We're free for now, and I'd like it to stay that way for a while. Right?"

"Yesh!" Red replied, before quickly changing that to a "Yes" as his companion glared at him. They both sighed. Then the old men spotted three people making their way towards them, dressed in similar attire and carrying briefcases. The colours differed here too- one's tie was blue, one's purple, one's green.

The blue one reached them first. "May ai ask what yer up to, gentlemen?" he asked with a very strong Scots accent.

"Trying to maintain cover and not speak with recognisable accents?" muttered Brown in an irritated voice, but Red was louder- "Watching the natural harmony between Pokemon and people my good sirs. Care to join us?"

"I don't see why not," said Green as he sat down on the bench, briefcase in lap, speaking in a robotic accent very similar to Brown's.

"Yes, a wonderful example of harmony and cooperation between humans and Pokemon," said Purple, in that same monotone. "I can see why you like it."

"Hoots mon, are yer really that uptight?" Blue asked Brown, ignoring the others and still speaking in his strong Scottish accent. "Ai dinnae see what yer problem is, there's no one else around!"

"Speaking of no-one else," interrupted Red, "where is he? He's normally early!"

The group spied "him" running quite fast towards them, another old man... the man with the yellow tie, swinging his briefcase as he ran, looking as if he was in a huge hurry (which he was).

Brown said "You're late" as he arrived panting, but was quickly silenced by the others. Blue said "Greetings" in his Scots accent, just to spite Brown.

"Signore, please," Yellow puffed. "Cut the chat, no one else knows we're all here."

Four of the five sighed on purpose, and Brown looked angry. "Vell," he said, his German accent finally coming out, "shall ve begin?"

"Oui," said Purple in a French accent. "Time for ze meeting of ze Sages."

The six assembled men were not normal old men of course. These were (six of) the Seven Sages of the infamous Team Plasma, on the run from the International Police for their "part" in Ghetsis' conspiracy to take Unova for themselves. And this was their first meeting in over a month. Important issues were to be discussed. The Sages championed the original aim of N; to gain complete peace and harmony between people and Pokemon. But now, they were in charge, and they would achieve balance their way; peacefully.

"You all know the shituashion gentlemen," Sage Rood in the red said, standing up. "Ghetshish ish in prishon, and blamesh ush ash well ash himshelf for the conshpirashy. The King ish mishing with the Legendariesh. Timesh are grave for Plashma."

"However," Sage Bronius in the brown said, in his German accent, "ve shall not be deterred. Due to the structure of our vonderful organisation, ve are now leaders. Ve decide policy. Ve decide law. Ve decide action."

"Aye," nodded Sage Gorm in the blue, his Scots accent showing more than ever. "Now let's show those resentful laddies what the true meaning of Plasma is."

There was a chorus of "yeah"s and cheers, then Sage Zinzolin, purple-clad, rose to replace Rood. "Monsieurs, I set you ze task un month ago that we would branch out our type speciality, to more than one, to make ourselves stronger and able to beat every Trainer zat opposes us. I now 'ave mastery of not only my Poison Pokemon, but ze mastery of ze Ghost Pokemon, and ze Dark type as well." He paused for polite applause from the other Sages. "Zank you. But I ask you, mes amis, 'ow is your ability?"

Rood rose instantly. "You all know I am a mashter of the Fire type, but now I have shpread out into... Dragonsh."

There were murmurs from his comrades.

"Leetle problem- Ghetsees ees not going to be happy signor," smiled Sage Giallo, the one with the yellow, his strong Italian accent showing now he had regained his breath and composure. "Now we have advantage over hees Hydreigon!"

"We?" asked Rood. "Unlesh you have advantagesh too, I am the only Shage who can beat Ghetshish'sh Hydreigon."

Ryoku, in green, coughed. "I may be of help also."

"'Ow monsieur?" asked Zinzolin, tilting his head to one side.

"Great friend of mine help me much," said Ryoku, whose Japanese accent was barely noticeable- Ryoku just found English grammar a bit tricky. "Now, I master Bug type, with my Grass types help me also."

"Ye cannae forget me, gents," Gorm added. "Water... and Ice for the Hydreigon. At yer service."

Bronius stood suddenly. "Vhy are ve concentrating on Hydreigon?!" he cried. "Surely ve should concentrate on the greater good?! I have gained mastery in Rock and Ground types, Giallo in Electric and Flying. They von't help against Hydreigon, but who cares? Vun Pokemon vill not make a difference in victory for Plasma!"

"Oui monsieurs!" cried Zinzolin. "We are Plasma! Un petit Hydreigon will not bozzer us! We do not get scared by ze little things!"

At this point there was a loud bang to to the north, scaring the Pidove away. With commendable speed for such old men, the Sages were up in a fighting stance, one Ultra Ball thrown and others in hand. Rood's Charizard, Gorm's Walrein, Giallo's Zebstrika, Bronius' Golem, Ryoku's Leavanny and Zinzolin's Drapion all leapt out ready and snarling, as their Trainers prepared to attack the assailant...

"Stop!" yelled Ryoku. "Look!" Craning their necks, the Sages saw that the gardener at the north hedge had fallen off his ladder and onto his Scyther to make the noise. "False alarm."

Their Pokemon groaned before the Sages returned them, and tried to look dignified, as if nothing had happened.

"Very shpeedy guysh," said Rood finally, smiling. "You did yourshelves proud."

The tension finally gone, the Sages started laughing.

"Ye gods that was scary!" laughed Gorm. After a few seconds getting over it, the Sages calmed down.

"Anyvay," coughed Bronius, "how are the rest of our missions?" Giallo tried to get into the conversation but wasn't quick enough.

"Very well, thank you," said Ryoku. "I identify several potential candidates for replace Ghetsis as Sage Seventh, and two particular stand out."

"Who?"

"The first all know. Scientist Colress, Ghetsis' understudy and accomplice who evade captivity so far."

"Colress, Colress..." Zinzolin was in deep thought. Then the truth hit home. "Not Achroma?" Ryoku nodded. "But he's insane!"

"Very dedicated employee, intelligent and creative," argued Ryoku.

"No signor," said Giallo firmly and strongly. "Completely untrustworthy, a complete psycho and loyal to Ghetsees. Big no no. I cannot breeng myself to trust heem."

"OK, how about Indigo?" asked Ryoku. "Talented user of Psychic and Fighting types, which we lack in current ranks, trustworthy, also very intelligent."

"Sage Indigo," mused Bronius. "I like it. It has a particular ring to it... Isn't he the vun vith an extreme British accent?" Ryoku nodded.

"Vell, nobody's perfect. Sign him up," said Bronius.

Ryoku smirked. "Funny. I already have."

Giallo piped up. "But eesn't he the one who we sent to estabeesh a base een Hoenn? Eet'll take heem at least a week to get here!"

Bronius nodded. "Ja, but if that's the price ve vill pay for a strong Sage, so be it." He then turned to the other Sages. "Und how is it with everyone else?"

Giallo desperately tried again to get his word in, but Rood beat him to it. "Good newsh from me alsho. I have located the Shadow Triad at lasht." The others started muttering, but Rood held up his hand for silence. "They have agreed to shplit from our King, and have shworn allegianshe to the new Sheven Shages. They are making their way to ush ash we shpeak."

"And on the subject, ai have located the King," said Gorm. "He is in Sinnoh, hiding from us because 'we worked with Ghetsis to use him'. He willnae take power from us or try to stop us, gentlemen; he dinnae have the courage to return and fight us!" This got ragged cheers from the Sages.

"Vell then," said Bronius. "My project to recruit more Grunts is a success. Also, ve have secured better Pokemon for them- ve cannot be feared vith Patrat as soldiers, but vith Pokemon like Throh? Sawk? Druddigon? Ve vill have success! Nothing can go wrong!"

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news signor," butted in Giallo, who had been trying to speak for over 2 minutes now, "but everytheeng ees not alright."

His companions heads turned to face him, shocked and slightly worried looking. "'Ow so, mon ami?" asked Zinzolin.

Giallo opened the briefcase he had been carrying and pulled out some slightly crumpled papers. "You all know my leetle assignment," he said. "I have to locate Plasma expereement PW101. But I have failed. He has escaped me, signore."

"Tisnae a problem Giallo," said Gorm, ever the optimist. "He dinnae pose the problem of the Triad or N or Ghetsis, thank God for that!"

"Yes, but my bad news ees not my failure to locate 101," said Giallo gravely. "You see, 101 was not the only experiment eento genetics."

"Is this vat I think it is?" asked Bronius, looking slightly worried.

Giallo nodded. "Ci signor. After Ghetsees cancelled 101's experiment under pressure from Lord N, he sent the scientists from that experiment to take part een a new experiment, a secret one, much stronger than 101. PW102." At this point Giallo passed around the papers he was holding. "Thees ees the summary of PW102."

After a few minutes reading, Gorm, the last to finish, passed his papers back to Giallo. "Ye gods! Ah dinnae remember agreeing to that!"

"Regrettably eet appears we all did," said Giallo. "A secret laboratory, where a combination of the best techniques were eenjected and manipulated een an attempt to create the perfect weapon. All of them failed within their host. Eet escaped once when eet was brought around from the coma. We imprisoned eet een a catatonic state after finally subduing eet, placing a stunningly complex lock on eets prison to ensure that eet would never escape."

"Vhy did ve not kill it?" asked Bronius.

"Because Ghetsees," again the name was spat out, "decided to keep thees weapon een case he needed it een the future. Thees weapon is the reason I do not trust Achroma- hees experiments eento Pokemon strength meant he was een charge of PW102's creation. A man who creates something like that should not join our ranks."

"So, ze catatonic experiment is a problem, why?" queried Zinzolin.

Giallo sighed. "12 hours ago, an inquisitive 8 year old broke eento the abandoned lab, discovered PW102, then tripped the electricity systems on hees way out. Now, there is no phone signal of WiFi to contact police, and een the building, no electricity to maintain the prison." Giallo paused for effect. "PW102 has escaped."

There was a long and horrible moment's silence from the Sages, punctuated only by the gardener falling off his ladder again, but this provoked no scrambled reaction this time. The Sages were too busy in shock at what this would mean.

"Scheiße," said Bronius finally. This was followed by each of the other Sages swearing in their own language. This was bad. Then all heads turned to Ryoku.

"Yes, I know," he said, in his fractured English. "I am only one who Pokemon will work against it, because of mutations. I will go to lab. But I need backup. What if public decide to get involved? I need you stop them."

Giallo went to close his briefcase, but noticed a little flashing red switch. He flicked it off without reading what it was, and stood up.

"Emergency referendum," spoke Zinzolin. "All zose who say go to stop PW102 say 'Aye'."

A chorus of ayes followed. The Sages were unanimous; Ghetsis had blamed them for enough. They were being held responsible for most of Ghetsis' crimes. But not this one. This one would have to be stopped, if the Sages were to have any hope of restoring honour. And so, after a battle plan was constructed, after Indigo was informed of the change of scenario, and after a lot of worrying was done, Team Plasma moved out on their first mission post-Ghetsis. And this one wasn't for them. It was for Unova.

**(********)**

And in another part of Unova entirely, a small red alarm button, similar to the button in Giallo's case, flickered on and off beside a computer screen in a small, shadowy Unovan building. On the screen, red text had been typing the same message for over 24 hours;

•Alert. PW102 release alert. Activate emergency countermeasures?

Then the red light flickered off. The text changed.

•Countermeasures remotely confirmed by: Sage Giallo. Activating...

On the far side of the room, two piercing red lights faded on in the gloom.

•Data stream activating. Transferring information...

The red lights flickered as information, figures and writing was transferred across, as if whatever was in the gloom was being briefed as to what PW102 was.

•Transfer success.

The red lights somehow widened and flared, as if in shock at what the information contained. Something moved. Something in the gloom was alive.

The screen flickered again, and this time the message was to the thing it had woken up-

•PW101. Execute countermeasure plan Delta. Destroy PW102.

Within a minute, the rubble was vaporised, and the building flattened. The dust was still clearing as something shot away from the wrecked building at high speed. The alarm had alerted it to events. It knew what had happened. It knew of the monster. It knew what harm it could cause.

Not again, it thought. It should not have been created. I must stop it from killing people. Their first monster was bad enough.

And at least the first one doesn't kill humans, it thought as it rocketed away. I know I don't kill humans. At least I can control myself...

**I've used accents for the Sages depending on what language their colour/name is (Rood=Dutch for Red= Dutch accent, etc). Gorm is Gaelic, but I'm using Scottish Gaelic as I already have an Irish Gaelic in the story (go Seamus!). Their types also match their colours- Rood=Red=Fire type and so on.**

**So now we know the old man in Undella was Sage Giallo. The competition has now been changed- what has Giallo released to combat the Slendermon? Answers by PM, prize of an OC etc.**

**And now this story starts to near an epic battle- the partiers are frightened of the Slendermon, who now knows where they are. The new Team Plasma are making their way to Undella, as is the mysterious being released by Giallo. I can only promise one thing- absolute carnage. Stay tuned!**

**Next chapter- A midnight visitor... Coming soon...**


	6. A Midnight Visitor

**A/N: Back again! Chapter 6 is here folks! Expect it to be short, sweet, and filled with delicious gore. :D**

**The competition to guess the identity of the Slendermon is still open, but congratulations to the guest 'Emily' for guessing the identity of the suspicious other Pokemon! I had to delete your review, otherwise others would learn the identity and there would be no suspense, but please leave your OC on a review, and I'll use them for my next story. **

**Anyway, it's show time...**

While it was a hive of activity during the day, as Unova's top tourist resort, Undella Town at night was a ghost town. When the tourists left, the locals went to bed and the parties of the richer citizens finally wound down, not a single thing moved in the streets, human or Pokemon. Apart from the sometimes-flickering streetlights, the faint splash of the waves and the far-off sounds of Bug Pokemon from Routes 13 and 14, Undella was perfectly still and peaceful. All was quiet. Eerily quiet.

Aaron reflected on this as he sat in the padded armchair in the room in the Pokemon Centre, the room he was sharing with Ronnie. Everyone from the party had moved in, occupying all of the rooms in the Centre. Even the people who were sleeping round Chelsea's had come, dragging their minibar along with them so they could get drunk, intent on not letting this thing destroy their 'good time'. They were stupid. At least almost all of them had gone to sleep now- the noise had been ridiculous.

The covers rustled from Ronnie's bed as she rolled over in her sleep, tossing and turning. Aaron had promised her prior to all this that he would stay up awake in their room, keeping watch over her. However, he'd done almost everything to stay awake. Coffee and energy drink had just given him a headache, he'd got bored trying to finally complete the level of Angry Pidgey he was stuck on, his Xtransceiver had run out of battery and the only channel on the TV that was working was the movie channel, currently showing 'Nightmare on Elm Street', perhaps not the best choice given the circumstances. Aaron was REALLY bored, with nothing to do. And he was getting so tired...

As the grey fuzz of tiredness set in, Aaron looked over to the other side of the room, and smiled. He'd let Sceptile, Banette and Heracross out of their Pokeballs to stay up with him, but Banette had acquired a pack of cards from somewhere, and the trio were sat on the floor playing 5-Card Draw poker. What made Aaron smile was the fact that both Heracross and Banette had tried playing hands with the Ace of Spades in them; watching them bicker while Sceptile looked on, embarrassed, was quite funny.

He glanced at the wall clock and yawned- nearly midnight. He needed a little bit of rest before he went on corridor duty at 6 the next morning. Sceptile and co would be fine guarding Ronnie without him...

Looking away from the argument between Banette and Heracross, Sceptile saw his master fast asleep in the armchair, and smiled. He nudged the other two to point it out, and put a finger to his lips as if to say 'Keep the noise down. Our master is sleeping'. The other two shrugged, and started a new game of poker, while Sceptile turned to face the door and watch, to keep guard over his master.

**(********)**

Meanwhile, out in the corridor, Giuseppe Cagliari walked along to the entrance lobby to check on Nurse Joy. His guard duty was nearly done and dusted, with no incidents to report. As he turned the corner, he could see the Nurse slumped over her counter, fast asleep, with her Audino sat in the chair beside her, also asleep.

"So much for staying up all night," Giuseppe muttered, shaking his head as he walked back into the corridor. It didn't matter that much though; at least someone was out and awake.

As he stalked back down the corridor, he recalled his Shiftry and Krookodile, who'd been sat with him on duty, before he made his way purposefully to a room midway along the corridor, knocking on the door.

After a short while, the door opened to reveal Chelsea, in a room on her own, wearing a light beige dressing gown.

"Is it that time already?" she asked, yawning.

Giuseppe nodded. "Uh-huh. Midnight. Time for you to go on guard. And be extra vigilant please."

"Why?"

"Nurse Joy's asleep, and you're currently the only guard." Giuseppe reached inside his jacket. "And I'd better give you this."

Chelsea's eyes widened when Giuseppe placed a pistol in her hand. "Wait, what?!"

"That's a SIG Sauer P226," Giuseppe said, smiling slightly. "Semi-automatic, fully loaded and ready to go. I've had this gun since I left Rocket, and it's pretty damn good." He patted Chelsea on the shoulder. "Just in case."

As he walked back to the room he was sharing with Moses, Chelsea locked her door and stepped out, still wondering why Giuseppe felt the need to carry a gun around with him. Then, in the empty corridor, she grinned, and pretended to shoot down the corridor, striking a variety of 'secret agent' poses while humming the Mission Impossible theme tune.

The novelty of this wore off after about five minutes, due to Chelsea's short attention span. She was getting really bored. She was huffing, whistling, humming, and itching to go and do something else.

"They won't miss me for five minutes," she muttered after a minute, getting up and pocketing Giuseppe's Sauer. She'd decided- she was going to go and have some fun.

Striding away, she found the room she was looking for, right at the end of the corridor, and knocked on the door.

Dallas opened almost immediately. "Oh hey Chels..."

She walked in past him and threw herself onto his bed. "Dallas darling, I'm bored with guard duty." A smirk crossed her lips, as she shrugged off the gown, revealing no underwear underneath. "What say you and me have a little 'fun'?"

Dallas' eyes boggled at the sight before him, before he shook his head vigorously. "No way Chels! You're supposed to be on guard duty, and if you go there's nobody else out there to protect the others!"

"Don't be silly! Nurse Joy is out there watching over us," said Chelsea, hoping he didn't know that the Nurse was asleep. "And come on Dallas babe! I need this! I need you..."

Dallas looked torn. "I... I..."

"I'll make it a quick one?"

Dallas sighed loudly, shutting the door behind him. "Fine. But be very quick. The others are counting on you."

"Relax," Chelsea said, pulling him onto the bed and grabbing at his boxers, "everything's fine..."

**(********)**

With Chelsea out of the corridor to the rooms, all was quiet in the Undella Town Pokemon Centre. Everyone was either in their room or asleep. Nobody was watching the corridor.

It was the moment the creature had been waiting for...

On the other side of the transparent main doors, a long claw slowly, quietly worked its way into the tiny gap between the doors. It gradually and silently pushed them wide open, letting a slight breeze into the Centre. And letting the Slendermon, PW102, the creature, in too.

The Slendermon ducked its head to get its 10-foot tall body through the 7-foot tall doorframe, and padded through. It walked in a weird way- its feet were always on tiptoes, but it lifted each leg up high in long strides, and always held its head down as it moved.

A couple of long strides brought it to the entrance desk, where it stopped, an oblivious and snoring Nurse Joy sat in front of it alongside her Audino. As the Nurse lay, face down on her desk, the Slendermon looked down, before stabbing a long claw down like a skewer, piercing through her skull and brain like a knife through warm butter. Nurse Joy was instantly dead.

The noise as the claw buried its way through her skull and thudded into the table, while not very loud, stirred Audino from its slumber. The Hearing Pokemon blinked rapidly, trying to refocus its eyes to the gloom around it, but a swipe of the Slendermon's long left arm sliced through Audino's chest, ripping Audino's heart out with it.

As Audino slumped forward like its owner, stone-cold dead, the Slendermon regarded the heart impaled on it's claw, then slid it off, flicking it up into the air before biting down on it and swallowing it. Then it's focus turned to the long corridor down the side of the Pokemon Centre; the corridor to the rooms.

Slowly, stalking forward with those long strides, it came to the first door in the corridor, and, sliding a claw down the gap between the door and the frame, cut the lock off with a little 'snick' noise. Pushing the door gently open, it folded itself through the archway into the little room...

The sole occupant of the room was napping on the bed, blissfully unaware of the peril she was in. Rain had heard the others warn that they should be vigilant, and not fall asleep without someone else awake in the room, but in the end she'd given up fighting her weariness and snoozed off. The first she knew about anything was when something soft and furry pushed down over her mouth. Her eyes snapped open, then widened in fear instantly.

The Slendermon towered over her, it's paw held down over her mouth, the muscly arms stopping her from struggling in its grip. She moaned, her words muffled by the paw, and grasped for a Pokeball on her belt.

"Mhm-mhm!" She reached the Pokeball and pressed the release button, hoping that it would release her strongest Pokemon, her Rhyperior, and that he would get this thing off her...

"Jiggly!" Oh no.

In her haste and panic, Rain had chosen the wrong Pokeball, and instead of her ultra-tough Rhyperior, she'd released her cute Jigglypuff, her singing companion, to fight a 10-foot, nightmarish brute.

Undeterred by the looming presence of the Slendermon however, her Jigglypuff growled, and attempted to use Pound on the Slendermon's leg. "Jigglypuff!"

Nothing seemed to be happening; the Pound attacks weren't working. However, upon hearing Jigglypuff cry its name, the Slendermon's head snapped away from Rain to look at its assailant. It remembered the other Jigglypuffs very well, and so it raised its leg and slowly crushed Jigglypuff into the carpet.

Rain's cries of 'No!', her wails at what she was seeing, turned the attention of the Slendermon back to her. Her wriggling became more frantic, more tears formed in her eyes and she actually managed to slip her mouth out from under the paw's vice grip. She opened her mouth wide to scream for the others, but quickly, like a blur, the Slendermon's claws tore through her throat and windpipe. The sounds never came as she gasped for breath and air, but slowly the light went out of her eyes, the fight went out of her, and Rachael 'Rain' Anderson died in her bed.

The Slendermon got up away from her, licking the blood off it's claws and wiping the Jigglypuff blood off it's feet onto the doormat as it stalked out of the room, quietly shutting the door behind itself. Nobody would suspect a thing. It knew however that it would have to pick up the pace; if it was to use its time well and kill as many humans as possible, it would have to make quick kills, and it would have to stop delaying while it stamped on yet more Jigglypuffs.

It made it to the next room along from Rain, again slicing through the lock and gently pushing the door open. This time though, the occupants of the room were awake. They weren't necessarily concentrating however...

Matt and Cheyanne were very, very drunk; when Chelsea had dragged her minibar into the Pokemon Centre, they had drunk a hell of a lot of alcohol, trying to let off steam and forget about this 'Slendermon' business. And now, like all couples when they were drunk, they were having 'fun'. Passionate fun.

Cheyanne had her eyes closed as Matt made love to her, while Matt was focussed solely on Cheyanne's body. Perhaps it would have been a better idea to have someone watching the doorway...

Matt stiffened suddenly in the middle of a thrust.

"More..." breathed Cheyanne lustily, still not opening her eyes. Her boyfriend didn't move. "Aww come on Matt, I need more." Still no reply. "Matt?" Cheyanne opened her eyes...

Approaching Matt from behind, the Slendermon had thrust three, foot-long claws through his body, one piercing his left lung and his heart, one stabbed right through his spinal cord, the other through his right lung. With his eyes rolled back in their sockets and blood oozing from his chest, it was no wonder Matt had stopped making love to her; he'd been paralysed instantly from the waist down, and death came quickly.

Cheyanne saw all this, saw the hulking beast behind Matt, his executor, and saw the Slendermon draw it's claws out of her boyfriend's limp body, letting it fall on top of her. She whimpered, terrified by the gruesome sight before her, then sat up bolt upright, opening her mouth to scream. But once again, the lightning-fast Slendermon was quicker- it bunched the claws of hand into a fist, drew back and drove the fist with all it's might through her head, smashing through the back of her skull, blood flying everywhere, her brain flying out and hitting the backboard of the bed with a wet splat.

The Slendermon regarded the carnage, the wreckage of Cheyanne's head. It knew that it's makers, it's jailers, had done something to it to make it much stronger, but it didn't know it could physically punch through someone's face and head. Perhaps it could use that more now...

Once again it stalked away from the corpses. Once again it quietly closed the door behind itself, hiding evidence of its crimes until the humans woke the next day. And once again it made its way to the next door. However, before it could get into this one, the furthest door, the door at the very end of the corridor, opened, and voices could be heard-

"See honey, I told you I'd be quick."

At the sound of Chelsea's voice from the doorway, the Slendermon stiffened, before it turned tail and bounded away down the corridor, running at a stunning pace. Through the foyer and out of the main doors, it slid the doors back on themselves, so it would appear that they had not been opened. Then it disappeared back into the night...

Back in the Pokemon Centre, Chelsea was talking to Dallas, leaning in the doorway to his room while she put her dressing gown on.

"I'm still not sure we should have done that," Dallas said.

"Don't worry! See, look," Chelsea replied, gesturing at the empty corridor. "Nothing happened. Chill out."

"Fine. Now get back to guard duty. And don't get distracted."

"I won't. I've got Giuseppe's pistol to keep me company." Chelsea mimed shooting someone.

Dallas slapped her ass playfully. "Go get 'em tiger."

As Dallas shut the door on her, Chelsea shivered, wondering why the corridor was so much colder, unaware that the cool night's breeze had been let in with the creature. She leaned against the far wall in the corridor, Giuseppe's SIG Sauer in her hand, idly waiting to shoot a monster who'd already been. Chelsea had no idea about Rain, Cheyanne and Matt. She had no idea about Nurse Joy and Audino, dead in the foyer. She had no idea her selfishness and sluttiness had cost the lives of four humans and two Pokemon. And Aaron and Ronnie had no idea how lucky they were; no idea that Chelsea's timely intervention, the intervention that scared the Slendermon off, had actually saved their lives- they were in the room next to Matt and Cheyanne.

But what would the reaction be in the morning, when they woke to find the still-running blood of their friends...

**Mwahaha. 4 dead humans, and I have a hunch that Slendy's after more ;)**

**Next chapter- A chilling discovery, an attempt to flee, an attack... AND THE UNMASKING OF THE SLENDERMON! FINALLY!**

**Please read and review, and as always, thanks for reading! Until next time, cheerio!**

**Sharkness**


	7. A Killer Unmasked

**A/N: Chapter 7 is here! Slightly later than I had hoped for, because my school started again, but it's here nevertheless.**

**The "Guess the Slendermon"competition is now closed. I had two correct answers, both within an hour of each other, but congratulations go to smash619 for winning! Your OC will be in my next fic mate :)**

**This chapter will see the unmasking of the Slendermon, and the beginning of its huge hunt to kill the partiers. I hope you all enjoy...**

The first of the morning sun's rays filtered through the windows into the Undella Town Pokemon Centre, shining bright and untainted by cloud cover. It truly was a beautiful morning.

Outside all the rooms, in the long corridor that linked them all, Aaron Rhodes rubbed his eyes as light streamed in, and stretched out from his position leaning against the wall. He'd been woken up at six to go out on guard duty, and had had only six hours sleep that night, yet somehow he wasn't that tired. In fact, he felt quite energetic.

His watch read 7:22 as the first two people, Giuseppe and Moses, always the earlier risers, got up and left their room to join him. Giuseppe gave Aaron a cup of hot, steaming coffee as Aaron gave Giuseppe his pistol back, and they sat in silence in the corridor while, gradually, most of the others got up.

As people chatted to each other, mostly about how bad their night's sleep was, Aaron returned his Pokemon, then turned to talk to Giuseppe.

"Why do you carry a gun around with you?" he asked, curious.

"Better safe than sorry. Lots of people have tried to kill me before, because if you're a criminal you tend to have a few enemies." Giuseppe said this quietly, without turning to look at Aaron. He looked puzzled, and sniffed the air, then raised his voice. "Strange."

"What is, Detective Cagliari?" Moses asked with a hint of sarcasm.

Giuseppe glared at him. "Two things. One, I can't smell breakfast cooking. Normally Nurse Joy starts making fried breakfast for the Trainers at 7:00, but I can't smell bacon or sausage. And two, I don't know about Matt and Cheyanne, but Rain's normally an early riser, like me. She never lies in."

Moses shrugged. "Rain's probably tired, with all the panic." Then he frowned. "But the Nurse Joy thing is strange. I'll go check on her."

Aaron and Giuseppe watched him walk down to the end of the corridor and into the lobby, as Ronnie came over to sit by Aaron.

"Sleep well?" he asked, hugging her.

She shook her head. "Not really, but hey. I just kept having nightmares about that... thing."

"Don't worry about it," Aaron reassured her. "Everything's gonna be fine."

The silence that followed was broken by Moses' yelling from the lobby. "Fuck! Guys! GUYS!"

All heads snapped up, alarmed. Everyone looked panicked, before rushing down the corridor to the source of the commotion. When everyone arrived, Moses was as white as a sheet, breathing heavily, and pointing to Nurse Joy's desk. They all turned, and all saw it- the Nurse, slumped forward on her desk, lifeless, next to the bloody wreckage of what used to be her Audino. It was horrifying.

Several people, including (surprisingly) Dallas, screamed. RJ threw up. Ronnie and Arianna started crying. Aaron felt physically sick at what he was seeing.

"This shit is real guys," moaned Moses. "The Slendermon's gonna get us!"

"Oh, pur-lease," came the drawl of Kassidy. "Any human could do that with a knife blade..."

"Shut up Kassidy," said everyone in the room, terrified of what they saw.

Giuseppe pulled Nurse Joy's body upright, to reveal the hole carved through her head and forehead. "You really think a human could do that?"

"I'll go get the others," RJ piped up suddenly, trembling. "They need to know."

The others nodded, silent, still in complete shock at what lay before them as RJ walked away slowly. This was bad, no matter what it was that did this. If it was a human or Pokemon, they were facing a psycho. If it was a Slendermon creature monster experiment thing, they were facing a killer supreme. Neither prospect sounded good.

RJ broke the silence. "Uh, guys?"

Slowly, as a group, the teens moved out of the lobby, and met RJ outside the door to Rain's room. His face was ashen, and it looked as if he'd thrown up again.

"Well?" said Kassidy impatiently.

RJ gulped. "Um, you guys really need to see this." He went to knock on the door, but the slightest of touches pushed it open, to reveal the horrors inside. Once again, there were screams, and Aaron comforted Ronnie as she cried, sick to the bone at the sight of his friend Rain's corpse, her throat and windpipe torn out.

"It must have cut the lock out the door," explained RJ, timidly, but it fell on deaf ears; people were still in shock.

"Ye gods," said Moses. "What is that on the floor?"

Dallas craned his neck to look. "It... looks like her Jigglypuff. Or what's left of it," he added self-consciously.

"What in Hell happened to it?" Dave asked, shaking. "Looks like it got crushed into the frigging floor!"

"Guys, it's worse in here!" came the grim yell of Giuseppe from the next room, Matt and Cheyanne's room.

Dreading what he was about to see, Aaron headed out of Rain's room and into the other room, the others following him reluctantly. But the moment that he walked in and saw the carnage of the room, the bloody remains of the naked corpses of Matt Pike and Cheyanne Alabaster, frozen mid-love-making, would live forever as a horrifying image in his mind. It was an image that would take centre stage in his nightmares for years to come, an image he would carry with him to the grave.

Quickly, to prevent the others from seeing it and getting further traumatised, Aaron shut the door behind himself, so only he and Giuseppe had to endure the sight of it.

"What... the fuck," he said, breathing heavily.

Giuseppe shook his head mournfully, morosely. "I know. Poor bastards were just having fun, then," he mimed cutting his throat, "gone."

Aaron stared at the remnants of Cheyanne. "What the Hell happened to her head?"

Giuseppe pointed to the wall behind her corpse soundlessly, and Aaron's gaze followed, before he quickly looked away. "Shit. Is that..."

Giuseppe nodded. "Her brain. Whatever this thing is, it's a monster."

"Let's go. Leave them alone. It's making me sick."

The two walked out of the room, shutting the door respectfully behind them. The others looked at them, questioningly, Giuseppe shaking his head.

"They're dead," he said to the others. "Cheyanne's skull has been smashed to pieces. Trust me, you guys don't wanna see."

"But how did this happen?" asked a sad Saskia. "We had guards in the corridor at all times!"

"We can't have, if this thing got through," Aaron said grimly, as Giuseppe and Moses went to their room. "Did anyone leave the corridor at all?"

Most people shook their heads. Chelsea and Dallas, on the other hand, said, "Oh God..."

As Saskia looked at them questioningly, followed by everyone else, Chelsea cleared her throat. "Well..." She explained to the group what she'd done with Dallas, how it was quick, only five minutes, but how she didn't think anything would happen.

"That's awful," said Seamus and Saskia at the end, in unison, refusing to look at Dallas and Chelsea.

"Ah hope you two're happy," Dave said grimly. "You two's actions've killed four folks and two Pokemon."

"How could you?" asked Ronnie and Rida mournfully.

Chelsea broke down into tears as Moses and Giuseppe returned from their room with a small holdall, and were told the story.

"Disgusting," snarled Moses. "You sicken me."

Giuseppe turned to the room in general. "Too right. Now listen guys. We know something's out here, and that it can kill. We need to protect ourselves. Everyone, get your Pokemon out, then," he unzipped the holdall, to reveal a staggering amount of small-arms and hand weapons, knives, guns and all, "take something out of here. Protect yourselves."

It dawned on Giuseppe that everyone was staring at him. "What? I'm part of one of Unova's most wanted criminal gangs! I can have weapons! And anyway, these actually aren't mine. I was hired by a client to steal them from Team Plasma."

"You are unbelievable," Dave muttered, helping himself all the same to a SIG Sauer pistol identical to Giuseppe's.

The rogue smiled, somehow pulling out a large Uzi from his bag of many wonders. "Why thank you. Means a lot to me."

Gradually the others got in and grabbed guns too, Aaron plumping for a Desert Eagle. Then suddenly, as Moses pulled out a machete...

"Wait just a minute here!"

All eyes turned to Kassidy, all minds thinking 'Oh what now?'.

Kassidy pointed a trembling finger at Moses machete. "You expect me to believe there is a monster from myth out there, stalking and killing my friends, and yet you two carry enough weapons for a frigging platoon!"

"What are you saying?" Moses said, contempt dripping from his voice.

"I'm saying that you two lowlifes aren't duping me! The 'claws' you talk about were some of the many blades you have! An inside job made it easier for you to kill the others and hide, and none of us heard anything unusual because nothing had left of entered the building."

"That's just Tauros shit!" Giuseppe snapped, angry. "Why the fuck would me and Moses kill three of our best friends, or a cute and innocent Jigglypuff, or a Nurse Joy we never really knew? What kind of people do you take us for?"

"Criminals!" screamed Kassidy. "Murdering, thieving, psychopathic, sadistic scum, and you know that's true! Well, I'm not fooled by your acting. I'm not going to let you kill me. I'm out of here!"

The snob picked up her Gucci handbag and stormed out of the corridor, heading straight for the door out of the Pokemon Centre. People parted to let her go, shaken by the ferociousness of the argument, and a couple, including Kassidy's best friend Arianna, looked torn- torn between believing that Giuseppe's criminal past was linked to the deaths and going with her, or believing the others, that there was something much more sinister afoot.

Chelsea turned to Giuseppe, who was shaking with either rage or sadness, and said, "Don't worry about Kassidy. The rest of us believe you."

"Yeah, some of us saw the thing, so we know it's real," said Ronnie. "She's just stressed. I think all of us are."

Giuseppe looked up, a lot of the anger and sadness gone, replaced by respect for the others. "Thanks guys. Glad you trust me."

Rida nodded. "Yeah, but we need to get Kassidy back here with the rest of us. If this... thing, this Slendermon, is out there, we need to stick together."

Dallas nodded. "Okay. You heard the girl, everyone. Let's go get Kassidy back."

Everyone grabbed their bags quickly and hurried out of the slaughter of the lobby, leaving the Pokemon Centre and the deaths of their friends behind. Looking around, Dave spotted Kassidy first, as she headed north out of Undella Town for Route 13, the route between Undella Town and Lacunosa Town. "Kassidy wait!"

"Why?" she shouted. "Why should I stay with the people who murdered my friends, and the people who still support them?"

"Kassidy we didn't kill them!" yelled Moses. "God dammit we didn't do it! We gotta stick together girl, cause that thing is out there, and if we split up it is gonna kill us!"

"Oh really? Because the Slendermon, a creature from an urban legend, really exists in sleepy Undella Town," Kassidy spat, sarcastically. "There's no such thing! You and Giuseppe are killers, and all the rest of you are helping them get away with it!"

"No such thing huh Kassidy?" While the others were panicky, Saskia was calm and cool. "You really think there's no such thing as the vicious killer Slendermon?"

"Yeah! And I'm going to find the police, and get the others the justice they deserve! You are all going down!"

"So you think there's no such thing as a Slendermon? Interesting," said Saskia, beginning to smile. "The way you're acting certainly doesn't suggest it."

"Huh?"

"If you really thought there was no such thing as the Slendermon, and that we'd killed the others, wouldn't you have used the phone box over there to call the police?" Saskia said, pointing.

"Do you think I'm stupid? Of course I tried to use it! All I got was an automatic recording telling me that all the landlines in Unova have been down for two weeks, and won't be fixed for a month! No landlines, no mobile signal and no WiFi in this shithole. I can't call the frigging police!"

"Hmm," said Saskia. "Then, if you needed to go by foot to get the police, surely you'd go down Route 14, to Black City? It's a shorter route, and as it's a city there are more policemen, which would help you arrest us."

"What are you saying?" asked a suspicious Kassidy.

"What I'm saying, Kassidy, is that you're scared of the monster. You won't go down the route everyone claims it's on, just in case it actually is real. You can't blame Giuseppe and Moses when you're obviously afraid of that thing."

"I am not!" shrieked a berserk Kassidy, snapping. "That's it! You lot accuse me of lying about everything! And you call me a snob, and you acted all nice to me at school when in reality you were all horrible criminal scum who just wanted to be friends with me for my money! You all sicken me! You're a bunch of miserable lowlife non-achieving assholes, and you can all go burn in Hell! I knew I should never have gone to a common Trainer School. I could have gone to a private academy, the best schools in the country, but I went to school with you lot! And look where that got me- with my life in danger, fearing one of you'd going to kill me. Fuck you all!"

It occurred to Kassidy, at the end of her long and hysterical rant, that the people in front of her were looking in... horrified shock? "Yeah, that's right! I'm out of here!"

"Uh... K-k-kassidy?" murmured Arianna, her facial expression not changing.

Alarm bells started clanging in Kassidy's mind. The others weren't looking shocked and horrified at what she'd just said about them. They were looking terrified. And above all, they were looking at a spot about two metres behind her.

She turned...

"I-i-is that what you saw on Route 14 RJ?" Dallas whimpered.

RJ and Ronnie nodded silently, too terrified to risk speaking in front of what stood in front of them.

"Jaysus," Seamus murmured in his Irish accent.

"Slendermon..." Aaron breathed, clenching his fists at the sight of the creature responsible for the deaths of three friends (and a Jigglypuff).

What stood before the partiers at the Undella Town entrance to Route 13 on that sunny April morning was nothing short of an abomination. Whatever Team Plasma had done to it in that isolated laboratory was 100% successful- they had created a monster, built up a Pokemon in a creature that scared the living daylights out of whoever stood before it.

It was clear that the original Pokemon that became the Slendermon was a Zoroark; the black fur, the thin and bandy body, the lean snout and the mane still survived in the look of the creature. It's mane, normally thick and red, had been dyed black, and was very thin, stretching down its back like the thin hair of Rapunzel. However, the face was featureless, covered in black fur; no nose stood out, no ears were pricked, and there were no eyes, only black fur smoothly covering its eye sockets.

This wasn't half of the story though. Zoroark were normally thin yet muscly, and quite tall; this one towered over 10 foot tall, on 5-foot-long legs that were knotted with veins, muscles strewn along the legs and the 4-foot-long arms like beads on a wire. It looked thin yet sinewy, as if it weighed as light as a feather but could hit you with the force of a wrecking ball. And to top this all off were the claws. Foot-long and razor-sharp, like butchers' knives attached to paws, there were four long claws on each hand paw and foot paw. This thing could kill. This thing was vicious.

Kassidy squeaked. The monster was at least two metres away from her, but the way it was built, the way it carried itself suggested that it could close that gap within a blink of an eye. On the subject of eyes, the Slendermon's face had none, but even without any, it was focused straight at her. It was part of what made the terror even worse; the fact that she knew the thing couldn't see her, couldn't look at her, yet was staring piercingly right at her.

She wet herself.

"Okay everyone, don't move a muscle," whispered Giuseppe, his hand slipping inside his jacket to try and get his Uzi and shoot the thing. The Slendermon's face whipped from Kassidy to stare eyelessly at him, and a low, feral growl escaped the creature. It was the kind of growl mankind had learned to recognise from the dawn of time, from the first time man had gone out into the world, the primal growl that says your time is up, no matter what you do. It was unreal.

"Okay, scratch that," Giuseppe whispered. "Now what're we gonna do?"

"Ah ain't fighting that," said Dave, flinching as the eyeless face turned briefly to him. "Ain't got no hope fighting."

"We could run," suggested Aaron. "All of us, together."

"Yeah, but as soon as we move that thing will kill Kassidy," whispered Arianna urgently.

"And that's a bad thing why?" Moses hissed. "That bitch thinks I'm a killer! If her death buys us the time to run like fuck then good!"

Kassidy however had made up her mind. "You guys aren't leaving me behind! I am not gonna die without a fight!" While the Slendermon was distracted by the others, her hand had made it to her Pokeballs on her belt, and she plucked two out. "Milotic, Vaporeon, fight that bastard!"

However, it wasn't to be. As she threw the Pokeballs forward, the Slendermon lunged forward...

"Run away!" Aaron yelled. The others, silent for so long, screamed and yelled as they stampeded away like a herd of Bouffalant. Ronnie however had frozen, still unable to move in fear of the Slendermon. Seeing this, Aaron sprinted back, and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her away from the monster as the group ran towards Route 14, in the opposite direction to the Slendermon.

Back at the entrance to Route 13, Kassidy had got the wrong Pokeballs in her haste to get her Pokemon out, and had thrown out her Minun and Plusle, tiny and cute, against the monster. Before it could chase after the main group, the Slendermon stopped, staring down at the two little Pokemon at its feet.

Not intimidated by the towering presence above them, Minun and Plusle launched Thundershock after Thundershock attack at the long thin legs standing in front of them, but all they appeared to do was singe the black fur of the once-Zoroark. Before Kassidy could get them back and send out her strongest Pokemon, the Slendermon reached out quickly with a claw, grabbing all her Pokeballs and tossing them behind it into the scrub.

Then it was all over quickly. As Kassidy started screaming, the Slendermon brought its clawed foot up, before crushing Plusle underfoot, grinding the remains of the Cheering Pokemon underfoot. It did the same to her Minun, too shocked to move out of the way, before it turned its attention to her. It's left arm swung, and the clawed paw carved open her stomach, intestines falling out. As Kassidy sank to her knees, now crying in pain as her life slowly left her, the Slendermon lifted its leg off the carcass of her Minun, before drawing back and kicking out at her head with its clawed foot, claws piercing her throat and windpipe before the sheer force snapped her neck backwards.

Kassidy's corpse slumped at the feet of the Slendermon, her blood spilling out and staining the green grass red. The monster stepped back from the bloodbath, before it's sightless, eyeless face stared out at Route 14, the direction the others had gone in.

The Slendermon strode forwards, purposefully, towards Route 14. The hunt had begun. And blood would run...

**Ah-ha! So Slendy is (well, used to be) a Zoroark, before Plasma mutated him into a monster. And now his hunt to kill the partiers begins! Mwahaha! :D**

**Next time- why not to wander off from the group, and what not to do when Team Plasma arrives. Coming soon...**

**Please read and, of course, please review! Until next time, adios amigos!**

**Sharkness**


	8. Run Away

**A/N: Chapter 8 of Slendermon! Here you go folks! :) Slightly delayed because I started work on a new Fanfic, 'The Chase', the first chapter of which is online now. Never mind, Slendy's here now. Mwahaha... :D**

**In this chapter, we learn what not to do when you meet Team Plasma, what not to do when being chased by the Slendermon, and we get a very nasty surprise...**

**On with the show...**

They ran. Fast, screaming, scared and frightened. The creature which they'd all refused to believe in, the creature that couldn't and shouldn't have existed, was there, and it was a killer. They knew as they ran that Kassidy was almost certainly dead; the question was, how many more of them would die? By running as fast as possible, hopefully they'd never learn the answer to that question.

As the group of teens sprinted down Route 14, they passed the gap in the trees, through which was the laboratory where the monster known as the Slendermon had been created, and against everything the others wanted to do, Seamus, Rida and Kelly looked at each other, nodding as they all had the same idea, and stopped.

"What the Hell are you doing? We have to stick together!" Dallas yelled at them, as the others stopped running.

"No. We're hiding," Seamus wheezed. "The lab has steel doors we can bolt shut, and concrete walls. If we lock ourselves in, that... demon can't get us."

"Are you stupid?" Aaron panted. "Have you seen the frigging claw marks? That Slendermon's claws have cut through the doors once already!"

Rida shook her head. "So? We'll build a barricade on the other side anyway, so that thing can't get through. Besides, if we keep quiet, hide, pretend we're not there, that thing won't know we're hiding in there. Then we can escape as it goes."

"You know, that's not actually a bad plan," admitted Saskia begrudgingly.

"Are you kidding? I'm not taking my chances with the Slendermon!" said Ronnie, looking very panicked and frightened. Several others nodded, echoing her.

"Up to you," Kelly said, softly, barely audible. It was the first time Aaron and the others had heard the loner girl speak. "I'm going with Seamus and Rida. Anyone here is welcome to come too."

"No!" Moses shouted. "Don't do this!"

The three splitters shook their heads, and turned their backs on the group, heading through the treeline and the brambly hedges towards the laboratory without a further sound. Moses yelled "No!" and lunged at them as they walked away, but Giuseppe restrained his struggling friend, who eventually stopped struggling and started crying, completely out of character; Moses never cried.

"They're dead," he sobbed, over and over. "They're dead..."

Aaron hugged Ronnie to comfort her as she started crying, and a sombre, black mood hung over the group like dark clouds.

"Whadda you mean, they're dead?" said Dave suddenly.

Ronnie blew her nose, getting a grip. "He means it's that creature's lair. It's where it sleeps at night, where it based itself, where it calls home. It's remained close to the lab where it was created, a sort of attachment if you like."

"And the dumb bastards have walked right into its home," Dallas said mournfully. "It'll discover someone's hiding there, and it's gonna kill them."

"Jesus," moaned RJ. "That's three more people dead at the hands of the Slendermon."

The group sat in miserable silence for a moment.

"Guys," Saskia piped up suddenly, always calm under pressure, "shouldn't we be moving?"

As people leapt to their feet in shock and horror, she sighed. "Guys!" They all looked at her. "We can't keep sprinting off all day. Now," she looked up Route 14, failing to see any monster, "it's sad that those three have wandered off, but it's a distraction for the creature. If we jog south, we should make Black City in an hour. We can call the police, we can hide out there, and we'll be safe. No need to panic, or be worried. Just keep calm and carry on."

Aaron got to his feet slowly. "You heard her. Let's not waste breath, but let's get going. Black City isn't that far away."

Everyone nodded, getting to their feet and starting jogging. Dallas, the sportstar, set the pace, a pace even the unfit like RJ and Chelsea could keep up with.

Ronnie moved into position beside Aaron after ten minutes of solid jogging. Even at quite a slow jogging pace, people were getting tired, and everyone slowed down to walk for a bit and catch their breath. "I am really scared now."

Aaron looked at her. "Don't worry. We all know the Slendermon's real, and we'll all stand by each other, protect each other, keep each other safe. We'll find a way to beat it."

"Are you sure? It's the Slendermon, a creature of legend, and it's a killer."

"Don't worry, seriously. You and me, together against that thing, the dream team. And if you're that worried, I promise, I'll keep you safe. I'll protect you till the end." Aaron really had no idea where those words had come from, and was slightly embarrassed.

Ronnie smiled, and Aaron detected the hint of a blush. "Really?"

He smiled too. "Really."

"Awright folks," Dave interrupted, as he finished a bottle of Fresh Water, "let's roll again."

As everyone prepared to pick up the pace, Aaron turned again to Ronnie. "You ready?"

She nodded, but as they set off again Aaron felt her delicate hand close around his. He wasn't the only one to notice; as he heard the sniggers of Moses and Giuseppe behind him, he flipped his middle finger up at them, but he was smiling. He didn't mind them really.

Aaron could tell there was something special between him and Ronnie. The hugs, the partnership, the promise of protection and now the holding hands. It was probably obvious to the Solrock and Lunatone in space. That didn't bother him, and neither did the question whether he would actually survive these events with the mysterious, enigmatic killer that was the Slendermon, whether he would be able to express his feelings or whether he would die. What bothered him was the fact he was going soppy, mushy, emotional, dramatic, all over romance. He hated that shit normally.

His thinking was interrupted. Dallas, a mile ahead of the group due to the pace training he'd put himself through, shouted from around the corner. "Hey guys, it's people heading this way!"

Then came a brief pause, and everyone stopped and stiffened when Dallas shouted again, "Hey, it's you!"

Everybody ran. Around the corner, they all skidded to a halt, to see the sight before them.

Six old men in brown business suits and brown Trilbys stood before them, 6 Ultra Balls on each of their belts. They were near identical, but there were subtle differences. The one on the left had on a brown tie, with a large grey Kaiser moustache. On his right was a green tied old man, Asian in the face, and on the Asian's right was a blue-tied old man with very pale skin, hints of ginger still in his thick moustache and hair, carrying a tartan briefcase. Next to the blue tied old man was an old man with a red tie, unremarkable, and next to him was a purple tied man, with a thin black Frenchman moustache and suspicious eyes, darting back and forth. Then finally, came the man Dallas recognised; the old man with the yellow tie, more tanned than the others, still carrying his briefcase.

"You!" Aaron said, immediately recognising the yellow tied man.

He nodded at Aaron. "Good morning," he said, fake accent replaced by a rich Italian accent. "How are you?"

"You," growled Dave, "told us there were no such thing as a Slendermon, and it killed 7 of our friends!"

"A what?"

"A Slendermon," Aaron jumped in. "The Team Plasma experiment from the secret lab. You pretended to be a detective, and told us it was fake."

"Ah yes. PW102. I thought you would leave Undella, so you would safe, but regrettably not."

"They've sheen PW102?" the red tied man said, in a Dutch accent. "Not good. Gentsh, we musht make hashte. We need to shtop it right away."

"Wait," said Saskia. "PW102? Isn't that the code that was on the files in the lab?"

"Yeah..." said Chelsea. "How do you know it's called that?"

The yellow tied old man sighed. "We have been deescovered. Great. I guess we may as well tell you..." He lifted up his sleeve to show his cuff links, two black and white shields with a blue 'P', as all of the others did exactly the same, to reveal the familiar logo...

"Team Plasma." The snarl that escaped the lips of Moses would have rivalled the Slendermon's primal growl.

Aaron started shaking in anger, enraged at the sight of those who had created a monster that had killed seven of his friends already, and the others were very angry too.

Giuseppe however looked enlightened. "Ah-ha! I recognised you straight away, but couldn't remember, and now I do! You're the Sages of Team Plasma!"

The old men all swore beneath their breath. "You'd zink, wouldn't you, zat when you try to go undercover nobody would recognise you?" muttered the purple tied one, in a thick French accent.

The brown one huffed. "Fine, yes, ve are the new Seven Sages of Team Plasma," he said in a German accent. "I am Sage Bronius."

"Sage Ryoku," said the green tied one, softly, with a trace of a Japanese accent.

"Shage Rood," said the red tied, Dutch one.

"Sage Zinzolin," said the French, purple tied one.

"Ai'm Sage Gorm," said the blue tied one in a Scottish accent.

"And I'm Sage Giallo," said the yellow tied old man finally, his Italian accent prominent.

"Wait, what?" Chelsea was still confused. "Who are the Sages?" The Sages looked shocked, as if they couldn't believe she'd said that.

"Part of Team Plasma," said RJ simply. "Team Plasma had a King, N, who was a figurehead. The real leader was his father, Ghetsis, leader of seven old men called the Seven Sages, who acted as N's advisors. When Team Plasma were defeated, N fled and Ghetsis was arrested, but the Sages are still at large."

"And here they are," said Giuseppe. "Now the highest members of Team Plasma."

Out of all the members of the group, this last statement had the most impact on Moses.

"You... bastards!" he howled, as he drew his machete and advanced towards Sage Ryoku, the nearest Sage, spitting. "Your creature killed seven of my friends!"

Bewildered and slightly scared, Ryoku stepped back as Giuseppe and Dallas tried to restrain the raging Moses, but Moses shook himself free, and lunged towards the Sage, machete ready to strike...

But as he lunged, the air shimmered and an Alakazam Teleported in front of him holding it's Trainer, another old man similarly dressed, but with a pink tie and a curly moustache. The newcomer immediately brought up a pistol and pointed it at Moses, who skidded to a halt.

"What ho!" said the new arrival in the most posh British accent ever. "Now just put the machete down and everything will be sorted out in a jiffy, old chap!"

Moses hesitated, before putting his blade back reluctantly in the folds of his hoodie. "Who's the fruity English guy?" he said to the Sages, who smiled.

"Ah, how rude of me," said the newcomer. "Tarquin Indigo, at your service. Fighting and Psychic type master, the new replacement for Ghetsis, and the last of the New Seven Sages, Sage Indigo."

The other Sages smiled. "A pity yer couldnae make it sooner, laddie," said Gorm the Scot. "But welcome tae the Sages!"

"Why thank you Gorm old chap! Now, let's get down to business, we need to jolly well stop the experiment before it ruins our name forever!" There was a chorus of 'Aye's.

"You mean your experiment," Giuseppe said sullenly.

The Sages looked very angry. "How dare you!" said Rood. "Like we'd willingly create shomething so deshpicable ash that! Thish wash not our experiment."

Giallo sighed. "How can I put thees? Ghetsees," the name was spat out, "acted alone een the eenterests of heemself, not the eenterests of Team Plasma. We believe een achieving balance between people and Pokemon, Ghetsis believed een power over both. We want to restart Plasma, to redeem ourselves, to do sometheeng good for Unova. Starteeng weeth destroyeeng the experiment Ghetsees made secretly."

"Wait, you had no idea about it?" asked Dallas.

Bronius nodded. "Ja. Here." He pulled out a diary from his jacket and passed it to Aaron. "Read this. It should clear any doubt."

Aaron glanced at the cover, which said 'This Diary belongs to Scientist Dr Colress Achroma, Scientist for Team Plasma', before he opened it and began to read it to the group...

(*******)

Elsewhere, in the abandoned laboratory, Seamus, Rida and Kelly had slammed the steel door shut and barricaded it with two desks they'd salvaged from the wreckage of the computer room. Then, panicking slightly in the darkness, they'd headed to the prison room in search of a generator, where a grisly surprise awaited them...

"Well, at least we now know what happened to Marco," Rida said matter-of-factly, as Seamus started shaking and Kelly threw up at the sight of their friend's head. It had obviously been chewed a bit before the Slendermon lost interest, and was now sat on a keyboard facing out at them, mouth open mid-scream. His Munchlax's skull was beside the head; the rest of the body was missing.

Seamus shook his head. "Jaysus," he said. "You are so insensitive, to be sure. A man's dead here!"

"So? I never really liked Marco. I just couldn't say anything or everyone would gang up on me."

At this Kelly gave a sob, and ran out of the room crying, slamming the room's door behind her.

"Now look what you've done, you are disgusting! I hope God sends you to Hell for saying something as horrible as that!"

"Jeez, give it a rest. You and your shitty religion."

They started arguing and bickering, and Kelly could hear them as she walked away down the corridor crying. She'd had quite a big crush on Marco, and he'd always treated her so nicely compared to the others; now he was dead, just another victim of the monstrous killer Slendermon.

Kelly formed a plan as she walked. After thinking about what the others had said, she didn't want to hide from the creature in its lair. Perhaps not the best plan she'd ever had. However, maybe if she left Seamus and Rida to it, snuck out away from the lair and tried to catch up with the others, she'd survive. As she pushed the barricades a bit away from the door, trying not to make a noise that would alert the other two, she decided it was a good plan, and swung open the steel door...

To be grabbed by a long black arm tipped with foot long claws, and hurled out of the laboratory before she could even make a sound. Not even the faintest of yelps escaped her lips as the muscles of the arms of the Slendermon threw her faster than any baseball pitcher into a tree the other side of the clearing, snapping her neck instantaneously. She was dead.

The Slendermon glanced round for the briefest of seconds, before passing inside the laboratory, sliding back the door and replacing the barricades, to look as if nothing had happened. Then it went into the computer room, hid itself, and waited.

Seamus reopened the door to the screen room, peering down the corridor. "I don't care anymore Rida. I just want to survive, praise the Lord. I'm going to go find the backup generator."

Ignoring the Arabic girl's jibes, he walked into the open computer room and found what he was looking for- the panel on the wall that read 'Emergency Generator'. He swung it open, slowly, focusing on the different switches, before he slowly became aware that a shadow had fallen across him...

The Slendermon, having concealed itself behind the door and snuck up on Seamus, watched the young Irishman sink to his knees before it, fumbling for a rosary. Seamus knew his time was up, that Rida couldn't save him, that he was a dead man walking. But he recited the Lord's Prayer under his breath, his last words, and looked up at the monster looming over through eyes with no fear.

"Please be quick," he said to it.

The Slendermon tilted its head, then nodded, and stabbed its claw through his forehead, instantly piercing the brain and killing him. Then it turned, walked out of the computer room and headed straight for where it had once been imprisoned.

Rida, head buried in computer wiring, heard the footsteps approach and stop behind her. "Found the generator yet, you Paddy bastard?"

Her only reply was the sudden grip of a strong paw around her neck as she was lifted out of the computer and up into the air, to stare terrified into where the eyes of the Slendermon would have been if it had them, as it's claws tickled her throat.

"Let... me... go!" she croaked, scared, unable to fully scream due to the paw around her throat. "Oh God... let me go!"

The Slendermon watched the struggling Arabian girl, once an atheist, pray to a God she'd never believed in as her life was threatened. Then it's head snapped up, alert, as she croaked "Mercy..."

It looked at her, did that tilting-head thing out of curiosity. Then shook its head, as if to say 'No mercy', and as Rida's eyes widened in terror it wrenched back with its paw, snapping her neck.

The Slendermon discarded the corpse without a care in the world, then stalked out to the outside world. As it took in the fresh air, it could still smell the faint scent of the perfume, the perfume the girl it was hunting was wearing, and it followed the scent...

(*******)

Aaron handed the diary back to Bronius after he'd finished reading it to the group, who all looked shocked. "That's... interesting. And all that's the truth?"

"Ja," said the German Sage. "Colress vas hired by Ghetsis covertly, vithout our permission. He vas in charge of experiments vhich Ghetsis didn't vant us to know about, including this. After the original failures of PW101, Colress vas tasked to create a more powerful Pokemon veapon, secretly, vithout us knowing, for Ghetsis' use only. He vas in charge of PW102, the 'Slendermon'. And he shut it down vhen the creature went mad. Yet it escaped."

"And that is why we are all here, my dear fellow," said Indigo.

"Ci," said Giallo. "We are the New Seven Sages. We are leaders of a new Team Plasma, and we want to achieve two things. Redemption for our predecessors' crimes, and a new eemage of kindness, peace and benevolence; the new eemage of Team Plasma een Unova."

"Well, zat's what you want," came the voice of Sage Zinzolin. Everyone turned, and noticed the man in purple was now pointing an Uzi identical to Giuseppe's at everyone, a weird smile upon his face as everyone stood weaponless and powerless before him. "My aims... zey are a little bit different."

"Zinzolin?"

**A/N: What's Zinzolin got up his sleeve I wonder? :) **

**Next chapter- what Zinzolin is planning, more Team Plasma arrivals, more stuff learned about the Slendermon and the beginning of an epic battle. Tune in soon!**

**Please read and review folks, reviews mean a lot to me, I'm not kidding :) until next time, adios amigos! :D**

**Sharkness**


	9. A House Divided

**A/N: Well here we are with what used to be Chapter 7 of Slendermon, before I updated and improved the earlier chapters :) now, Chapter 9! :)**

**I just want to say thanks to Nauran, Jaded Silver, HazelFireSky, Emily and EchoingBreeze for your positive reviews, and thanks to everyone who has favourited/is following this story! You guys are amazing! :D**

**So, this chapter will reveal Zinzolin's true intentions, and mark the start of an epicly huge battle between good and Slendermon. **

**On with the show! I hope you enjoy...**

Zinzolin, Sage of Team Plasma, stood before the group, Uzi in hand, triumphant smile etched upon his face. He had them right where he wanted them, at gunpoint, powerless before him. This was his moment, and he basked in the glory.

"Ze next man or woman zat moves," he said in his thick French accent, "will be shot. Don't even zink about trying to get a weapon or a Pokemon out against me."

"Zinzolin my dear fellow, what the blazes do you think you're doing?" Sage Indigo asked, indignant, stepping forward.

Zinzolin detected the movement and fanned the trigger of his Uzi, sending three shots into the shin of the Englishman, smiling as his fellow Sage went down screaming. "I told you, don't move a muscle."

"You bastard," spat Dave. "What the hell you doing this for?"

"Because you are about to be witness to ze revival of Team Plasma. Ze true Team Plasma."

"Ja," said Bronius pointedly, "VE are the revived Team Plasma, revived to earn redemption for the crimes made by the previous Team Plasma."

"Pah!" scoffed Zinzolin, his smile turning to a scowl. "Team Plasma needs no redemption. Plasma tried to bring a new light to ze region. Plasma tried to bring in a new leader, who would bring ze country out of ze darkness. And they were stopped by ignorant pigs who cannot see ze bigger picture- zat everyzing would be better if Plasma were on top."

"And that Plashma did it illegally," said Rood darkly. "That Plashma did not want true harmony like our King shpoke of. That Plashma wanted greed, and leadership, and power."

"That ees why we came here," argued Giallo. "We, the New Seven Sages, want to achieve balance and harmony between people and Pokemon."

"Aha," laughed Zinzolin. "Really? You zink zat allegiance to ze King, ze one with ze flawed ideas about how to rule, is what's important? How sad. I am... more sensible. You could say, I see a bigger picture. I know who ze real leader is."

"Ghetsis," said Aaron grimly, having worked it out. "You're still allied to Ghetsis."

Zinzolin clapped, then refocused the Uzi on them. "Ah, très bien monsieur! Someone is intelligent at least."

"No!" said Ryoku, speaking for the first time. "You can't be! Not now!"

"Ah, mon ami, but I can. My lord Ghetsis is imprisoned by ze International Police, safe in zere custody. He could 'ave escaped by now, with his power and strength, but he waits, waiting for ze moment ze new Team Plasma arises."

Zinzolin pulled out a large boxy machine with a touch screen and an aerial, that looked somewhere between a large computer, a remote and an iPad. "You all know Ghetsis had ze scientist Colress Achroma on his side. Colress is still free, and he created zis device for me. He designed ze PW102 Lab so someone could release ze creature. He knew you would all rebel against Ghetsis. He knew you would all come here yourselves, to stop ze creature. And I was sent to make sure you didn't."

"Ya mean t'was all a scheme to kill us?" asked an incredulous Gorm.

Zinzolin nodded. "Aha, yes. Of course, we didn't know when ze creature would be released, but all we had to do was wait. One day, someone would find ze lab, and release ze creature. Zen, it was time to start ze rise of the real Team Plasma. With you Sages out of ze way, nobody will stop us. And zis time, we will rule Unova!"

"Yeah, all well and good, but what does the machine do?" asked Saskia. "And what will you do with us?"

"Bah! You are a distraction. Ze creature will kill you all too without a second glance at your corpses. And zis machine? It will control ze creature."

"Well that's all Tauros shit," muttered Moses, glaring at Zinzolin.

"Yeah!" RJ chimed in. "Didn't you read Colress' diary? The combination of techniques used on it turned it mad, and it started to overpower Plasma control. You can't take it over now!"

"You zink ze genius Colress didn't zink of zat? He knows it went mad. But he has had all zis time, and he has ze way to overcome ze creature's insanity."

"Well, we're doomed," said Indigo, trying to act cheerfully. "It was nice knowing you all chaps."

Zinzolin smiled. "Goodbye mes amis! It comes now!" He held aloft the device...

Then, out of the woods, out of the treeline, out of the thick brambly hedges that lined Route 14, jumped a tall black figure, landing elegantly in front of Zinzolin. It's claws flexed, dripping with blood, and its teeth were bared as it focused on the group in front of it, making that feral, primal growl once again...

"Slendermon," whimpered Ronnie, although the amount she was seeing the monster now, she was actually getting used to the thing, and no longer became pants-wettingly afraid of it. The rest of the partiers were terrified, and also slightly worried whether it was new blood on those claws, somebody else's blood, the blood of a new victim. The Sages, on the other hand...

"Sho that'sh what it looksh like," said Rood, looking curiously at the Slendermon, PW102, that stood before them. It was the first time any of the Sages had seen it in the flesh. "They really did a good job on thish one, didn't they?"

"It certainly looks terrifying," agreed Bronius. "You take vun look at it and you think 'Scheiße, that thing's a killer'."

"Well, anyone here a way to get rid of this beastie?" Gorm asked.

"Don't move, Gorm," Zinzolin replied. "It will only make zings worse."

"Ai'm not moving, don't be silly," said Gorm quickly, stepping back under Zinzolin's cold glare.

"I believe Slendermon legend say, if you say name three time, it go away," said Ryoku in broken English.

Bronius looked at him curiously. "You sure? Vell, it's vorth a try. Slendermon Slendermon Slendermon!"

There was a brief, awkward silence where nothing happened.

"You dipshit," swore Dallas suddenly. "That's the Candyman!"

"And even then it's wrong," said RJ, glaring at Ryoku, who whimpered.

Zinzolin chuckled at this. "Oh you make me laugh mes amis! You really zought zat would work!"

Everyone looked embarrassed, then looked curious and slightly scared as the Slendermon turned to face Zinzolin, still growling.

"Be quiet," the Frenchman said impatiently, and the growling stopped. Zinzolin held up the device. "You see zis? Yes? Good. You are under my control now, you will do what I tell you to do. Yes?"

There was a pause, then the creature nodded.

"Oh God," Chelsea murmured, "it's working!"

Zinzolin smiled. "Excellent!" Then he whipped round with the Uzi and pointed it at Indigo, who was white as a sheet and was trying to hobble off. "Don't move!"

The creature snarled, as Indigo whimpered and returned to the group. Then Zinzolin, gun still trained on them, reached to his belt, and released six Pokemon from six Ultra Balls. A Weezing, Garbodor, Gengar, Drapion, Mandibuzz and Sableye leapt out, stiffening as they landed beside the creature.

"Perfect," said Zinzolin. "My Pokemon are out, ze creature is ours, and ze squadron of Grunts is on ze way. When zey arrive, we will take ze creature and free Ghetsis. Zen, we will meet with Colress, take over ze Pokemon League and rule Unova. And zen ze world..."

"You're insane," said Aaron, hollowly.

"No, I'm realistic. Oh, and did I mention zat when ze Grunts arrive, you will die?" Suddenly, Giallo stared at Zinzolin, before he started laughing, the others bewildered as to what was so funny. "What? What are you laughing at?"

"Oh Zinzolin, you are so naive!" laughed the Italian Sage. "So hasty to do thees, so queeck to act! You should've been a leetle more careful, signor."

By now the others Sages had picked up on the reason why Giallo was laughing, and Aaron had too, pointing it out to the others. Zinzolin was furious. "What? Why do you laugh Giallo? What is wrong?" When nobody answered he fired the Uzi into the air, emptying it of ammo with a loud booming noise. "Answer me!"

The group fell deathly silent, and looked horrified suddenly.

Zinzolin was still in a fit of rage. "Answer me! Mon dieu, why do you laugh?!"

"Umm, Zinzolin," Giallo said, quietly, all humour and laughing gone from his voice, "take a look at the machine."

Zinzolin's head whipped to it. "Yes? Well?"

"Well, I noteece that there's a red light on the top of eet..."

"And?"

"Well, shouldn't eet be green, eef eet's on?"

Several things suddenly struck Sage Zinzolin at that point. The light that should have been green was red, so his machine was off. He hadn't reloaded his gun. Most of the group in front of him, Sages and partiers, looked terrified towards his direction, as did several of his Pokemon. And, most importantly, as a shadow fell across him, they were all looking at a point about a metre behind him...

The Slendermon creature that stood before him flickered on the spot and suddenly vanished, as the group started to edge away. And a growl that made him shiver to the bones sounded behind him.

"Oh, very clever," he said to nobody in particular. "It was a Zoroark, I should have remembered. And Colress didn't remove its Illusion ability, so it can still create illusions... copies of itself."

He turned, slowly, to face the real Slendermon, towering over him, blood dripping from the long, butcher-knife claws, the eyeless face still staring intently at him, boring into his mind. Somehow, there was something in the way the creature looked that made you just want to give up, because if you saw it it meant all hope was lost. It just looked like a killing machine, something that could utterly destroy you within a blink of an eye, something that could rip you apart in the most horrifying way and just move on like it was nothing special, nothing new.

"Zat was a horrible trick you played zere," Zinzolin said to the Slendermon, gazing up into the face of death. "And I suppose I'm going to die now, without even a chance?"

Then the Slendermon did something he'd never have thought it would do- it started to bear its terrible teeth at him, but the corners of the mouth turned up as the razor sharp blades canines were exposed...

The Slendermon smiled what looked like a peaceful smile, a smile that looked so horrible coming from a monster. Then it lunged forward, long arms outstretched, and plunged the claws of both paws into the middle of Zinzolin's chest. Then, as people screamed, the muscles on its thin, long arms tensed, and it pulled Zinzolin's ribcage apart, ripping it open with a crack and a squelch. Zinzolin's chest was torn apart, bleeding organs exposed to the Unova sun as the creature dropped the dead Sage on the floor carelessly, before calmly stepping on his head, treading on it, crushing it under a clawed foot so the brain of the Frenchman lay splattered onto the ground.

Then the beast turned to the others. Sages and partiers alike had turned as soon as it had lunged murderously towards Zinzolin, and they were trying to run away, back the other way up Route 14 towards Undella Town. However, limping from the shots Zinzolin had fired through his shin, Sage Indigo was slower than the others, and the beast seized the opportunity.

Indigo threw his Pokeballs to the nearest Sage, Rood, as he sensed the danger and impending death. "Go my friend! Don't worry about me!"

As he slowed, the others panicking and shouting to him, screaming as they hoped he'd survive, the creature leapt into mid air, before as it came down it sliced in one long arc through the neck of the Englishman. Indigo's head came off smoothly, and his body slumped to the floor, while the Slendermon kicked his head into the treeline.

It snarled, then bounded forwards in a fast run, leaping over their heads and skidding to a halt in front of them, blocking their path.

"Aww shit," yelled Dave as it landed, cutting them off. "Back the other way!"

Dallas was much quicker than the rest of the group at changing direction and speeding off, and the Sportstar gained a flying lead. This wasn't really the best of plans; the Slendermon jumped again, this time landing between him and the group, separating them as he fell over.

"Oh shit," moaned Dallas, as the creature turned towards him. Out of desperation, he crawled towards the remains of Sage Zinzolin, grabbing Zinzolin's Uzi and pointing it at the creature...

To hear the click of the gun, empty of ammo, providing him with no defence.

"Fuck!" he swore out loud, as the once-Zoroark stalked towards him, but he knew he couldn't do anything now. His demise was inevitable, so he stood calmly, not moving, as the creature drew back a clawed fist and hit his face with the force of a freight train, with the force of a wrecking ball. His head EXPLODED.

The Slendermon turned towards the others, licking its fist clean of the blood and gore of Dallas' head as yet another headless body hit the ground. Then it smiled that gruesome and horrifying grin yet again.

"Well, we cannae run nay more," said the Scotsman Sage Gorm grimly, drawing six Ultra Balls from his belt. "It's time to fight, everyone. Fight or die today."

"Ja," said Bronius, copying Gorm, as the surviving Sages did the same. "Everyone needs to fight it."

The partiers nodded, silently, as people drew Pokeballs in preparation for the huge battle. This was it, do or die, Slendermon versus humans and Pokemon.

Time to fight...

**A/N: And so begins a battle of stunning proportions between the Slendermon, the Team Plasma experiment gone wrong, and the team of the Sages and the partiers...**

**Anyone who likes Sage Indigo, my OC, and has a Team Plasma story of their own that they'd like to use him in, you're welcome! Just PM me and I'll send you the details right away!**

**Next time: let battle commence. There will be death...**

**Please read and review, and until next time, adios amigos! :)**

**Sharkness**


	10. Bloodbath

**A/N: Chapter 10! Huzzah! :D a little later than intended, what with all my school assessments, but who cares? :)**

**Sorry for messing you guys around with the updates for earlier chapters. I just hated the length of them, and wanted to do something about it, so I split them up. This, an ALL NEW CHAPTER, will focus on the battle between the Slendermon and the Sages/partiers, with much gore, violence and death.**

**Because I haven't done them yet, I'll do a disclaimer (I don't own Pokemon, the Sages, or the Slenderman. I do own the SlenderMON), and the warnings (WARNING- this story has contained, does contain and will contain- lots of blood, gore, death, violence, some swearing, some mild sexual references, a killer Zoroark and random Jigglypuffs being stamped on. You have been warned). :D**

**On with the show...**

As they faced off against PW102, the Slendermon, the vicious, psychopathic killing machine that had taken the lives of 10 humans and 4 Pokemon in 24 hours, everyone, Sages, partiers and Pokemon alike, was understandably frightened out of their wits. But this was it; they couldn't run anymore, there was nowhere to hide, and their only option was to fight the monster that stood before them.

"Bring. It. On, beastie!" Sage Gorm yelled triumphantly, throwing out six Ultra Balls.

Everyone followed his lead, throwing out their Pokemon regardless of type disadvantage to the Dark-type once-Zoroark, so around 40 Pokemon stood against the Slendermon. At first, the Pokemon were scared, some quivering and trembling in fear at the sight of the snarling, furious monster. But yells of encouragement from their Trainers removed the fear, and the battle began.

The Sages' Pokemon especially were firing on all cylinders, holding nothing back against the Slendermon. Giallo's Electric types made the air crackle with sparks, while his Flying type soared high above, raining down attacks from the heavens. Thanks to Gorm's Water and Ice types, freezing rain fell from the sky as his Pokemon threw blasts of water and solid ice. Bronius' Rock and Ground types hid underground in the earth, leaping out from time to time to use powerful attacks, sometimes making the ground tremble and quake with their raw power. Rood's Dragon types joined Giallo's Flying types high in the sky, while his Fire types launched attacks of blistering, burning heat. And amidst all this, in the middle, Zinzolin's Pokemon, now without a master, led Ryoku's Bug and Grass types against the beast, followed closely by the partier's Pokemon. It was bedlam.

No Pokemon in the world could deal with this many Pokemon attacking it at once. The sheer amount of attacks launched would not have knocked out a Pokemon; the amount of attacks launched would killed it. Yet somehow, despite the brutal onslaught by Sages and partiers' Pokemon alike, the Slendermon remained proud, tall and firm. Somehow, the Slendermon took everything thrown at it and came out the other side unscathed.

The Electric and Fire attacks launched at it singed its skin, burning its fur in places. The Water and Ice attacks simply dripped off its hide, pooling at its feet. The Rock and Ground type moves, the moves that registered on seismoscopes across Unova, the moves that scored high on the Richter scale for measuring earthquakes, merely knocked it briefly off-balance.

Aaron noticed this all. "Why isn't this working?" he yelled to everyone around him.

And then, as the attacking Pokemon momentarily stopped attacking stepped back, unsure of what damage they were causing to the Slendermon, it smiled that gruesomely horrible smile. And it's own attack begun.

Lunging forward, snarling, claws outstretched like sword blades, it charged at Sage Rood's Haxorus, the nearest Pokemon. The powerful Axe Jaw Pokemon sensed the danger and gave up its ineffective Dragon Claw attack, swinging its head towards the Slendermon, the red scythe-like tusks on the side of Haxorus' face carving through the air. But the Slendermon was lightning quick; the muscles of its bandy rear legs tautened and sprung, leaping high into the air above Haxorus, avoiding the razor-sharp tusks. Then, as it came down, it sank its own blades, its foot-long butcher-knife claws, into Haxorus' long neck, through the Dragon's spine, cutting its head off as easily as an icebreaker through a small snowdrift.

Then it followed through, bouncing off the body of the fallen Haxorus and landing on one of Arianna's Delcatty, the force of the jump driving its clawed feet through Delcatty's body, crushing it into the ground. Nimbly, it span, claws already heavy with blood, to drive its claws through the head of Ryoku's Venusaur, before again jumping to Arianna's other Delcatty. The Slendermon's paw closed around Delcatty's head, the muscles on the arms contracted, and it crushed the skull of the mewling Delcatty, before it heard a son behind it.

It then turned to Zinzolin's Mandibuzz, who was on the ground resting at the wrong time. A game of cat and mouse began, Mandibuzz frantically dodging the Slendermon's claws, looking for a way out.

While the Slendermon was distracted by Mandibuzz, Giuseppe sprinted across to Giallo. "We're getting massacred! We need to attack now!"

"We're trying!" yelled Saskia. "But that damn thing's taking everything we throw at it without flinching!"

"How?" Moses shouted, shaking his head morosely. "How is it able to do that?"

Away from them, Mandibuzz tried to Fly out of the way, but was grabbed onto by the monster, and as it gained altitude the Slendermon slit its throat, before springing off the vulture and charging at the rest of Zinzolin's Pokemon.

"I have an idea!" Aaron shouted suddenly, above the noise of bones cracking and flesh being sliced.

"What?" everyone said.

"We found that bottle in the lab, those genes that were injected into it! The WG Gene!" Aaron fished the bottle out of his trenchcoat pocket and waved it around as if to prove it.

Ryoku suddenly looked enlightened. "WG! That it! Wonder Guard!"

"What?" yelled Chelsea. "What the hell's Wonder Guard?"

"Wonder Guard, the ability of Shedinja. Only shuper effective movesh work againsht a Pokemon with Wonder Guard," Rood explained.

"Colress obviously found the correct gene, and gave PW102 the Vonder Guard gene," Bronius said.

Gorm's brow was furrowed in confusion. "But how? How do ye get a gene from a Ghost-type?"

Giallo shrugged passively. "The genius of Colress. He had all thees time to do eet too."

RJ looked thoughtful. "He gave it a new ability... it's very possible, and for him it would have been quite easy. But Wonder Guard should reduce its health to 1HP. So one hit, and..."

"No," said Giallo firmly. "Colress knew that, so he tinkered with it's genetics to give it huge HP, and much boosted stats."

Dave still looked confused. "But wait! Ah thought that there monster still had the Illusion ability! That's how it beat Zinzolin, right?"

"Right," nodded Ryoku. "But it has Wonder Guard also. World first Pokemon with two ability."

"But two abilitiesh and improved shtatsh came at a price," said Rood. "The damn thing can't ushe any natural TMsh or movesh, despite its huge attack. That's why it attacks with just its claws, teeth and muscles- it can't use a Dark Pulse, or a Shadow Claw, or even a Tackle."

At this point, the dual-ability, no-moves Slendermon jumped and landed near them, making everyone jump back. The wreckage of Zinzolin's Weezing, Garbodor, Gengar and Mandibuzz was visible behind it, as well as the broken body of Giallo's Noctowl.

"Faccia di merda!" The Italian Sage swore as he saw the remains of his Pokemon. "That's eet! Everyone, get every Pokemon you can! Only Bug or Fighting type moves work, so use them eef you can, but eef not, get Pokemon to attack weethout moves! Teeth, claws, keecks, punches, just heet the damn theeng!"

Emboldened by Giallo's speech, the humans moved in. Rood returned all of his Fire and Dragon types except his Emboar, remembering the Pokemon Sage Indigo had thrown to him before he died. Indigo's Mienshao, Scrafty and Conkeldurr joined the fight, and round two against the Slendermon began.

This time, the humans had more success. The Bug-types of Ryoku, Indigo's Fighting types, Aaron's Heracross and RJ's Venonat hit the Slendermon with all kinds of moves, while the other Pokemon joined in with claws and teeth.

In the midst of the great battle, Aaron paused for a minute and watched the chaos. He saw the Sages lead blinding attack after blinding attack on the Slendermon. He saw the Bug and Fighting types land critical, effective moves on it, he saw other Pokemon hit it with any blow they could manage. He watched Ronnie direct her Pokemon against it, and was immensely proud- he knew that not so long ago she would have been terrified of the beast, horrified of the bloodshed around her, and using her Pokemon against it would have been her last resort.

Sage Giallo appeared at his side. "It's working!" the Italian yelled.

But he spoke too soon. As soon as it started to look like they were making headway against the monster, it roared a terrifying roar, baring its teeth, gritting them as it was hit by moves, before charging like an enraged Tauros.

"Aww shit!" Dave yelled. "We made it very angry!"

As soon as he said it, the Slendermon sprinted straight for Giallo's Magnezone, who panicked and unleashed an uber-powerful Thunderbolt that completely missed the beast.

Aaron had to grab Giallo and pull him down to the ground as the huge bolt of electricity sizzled over their heads- if they'd been a second later they'd have been fried. "Shit!"

The Slendermon lashed out at Magnezone with a one-two punch from clawed fists, a punch that clawed deep lines in the metallic skin of the hovering Magnet Pokemon.

Giallo held up an Ultra Ball. "Magnezone return!" he yelled, returning his Pokemon before the Slendermon could carve any more out of it.

Enraged at being cheated out of a kill, the beast charged for the nearest target- Chelsea. It swung its claws at the slut, who yelped, before her chest was torn open by the claws, before her insides were ripped out, and before her still-beating, bleeding heart was swallowed by the vicious creature.

The owner of the two dead Delcatty, Arianna, screamed "No!", trying to run to Chelsea to save her, but she was too slow. Shocked at the heartless killing of her friend, she was too slow to dodge out of the way of the scything claws, and the Slendermon decapitated yet another human.

Then the monster turned on a new target- Ronnie, suddenly paralysed at the sight of the advancing nightmare. It snarled, bared its teeth, and charged, drawing its claws back, preparing to swing and strike...

At the last possible moment however a sprinting Aaron dived for the tan girl with a flying tackle any linebacker would envy, bringing her crashing down to the floor before rising up with a spinning kick that caught the creature in the stomach before it could dodge.

"Get away from her," Aaron growled, pulling a stunned Ronnie away from the winded Slendermon before Indigo's Mienshao appeared at lightning pace to fire several Mach Punches at the creature's head, and Bounced away.

The Slendermon shook itself, before three Pokemon surrounded it- Bronius' Tyranitar and Aggron, and Zinzolin's Drapion. Three powerhouse Pokemon, two with incredibly strong armour to go with it. Yet as Drapion leapt at it, pincers bared and ready to snap, the Slendermon grabbed onto it in mid-leap, halting its momentum. As a stunned Drapion wriggled and tried to free itself, the Slendermon's strong arms threw the Ogre Scorp Pokemon across the Route and into a tree, knocking Drapion out, the first time the Slendermon hadn't actually killed its target. Then, the Slendermon dodged huge punches from Tyranitar and Aggron, leaping high again to get on Aggron's back, jabbing its claws through the weak point in the Rock/Steel type's armour at the back of the neck. As Aggron stiffened and started to slump forward, the Slendermon hooked its claws into Aggron, snarled, and threw the heavy Pokemon with all its might at Tyranitar. The last thing Tyranitar was expecting was to be hit by a heavy, flying Aggron, and Tyranitar was knocked out.

"Shit!" Gorm yelled, as the Slendermon advanced to kill the unconscious Drapion. "We dinnae have the strength to match it anymore!"

"Not so fast!" shouted Ryoku. The Japanese Sage sprinted over to the corpse of Sage Zinzolin, grabbing his Pokeballs before activating all of them, returning all of Zinzolin's surviving Pokemon before they could be slaughtered. Bronius also returned Tyranitar before it was killed, but the red beams from the Pokeballs attracted the attention of the beast, who noticed that Ryoku had been separated from the group.

"No!" Giuseppe cried, but the creature smiled its sickly smile, snarled, and suddenly pointed a clawed fist at Ryoku. A strange, black energy formed in its palm, rippling like liquid, and as it formed a sphere of shadow, the Slendermon threw the ball at Ryoku. The Asian turned, seeing it, throwing the Pokeballs towards the other Sages, closing his eyes for the last time, his fate sealed.

On impact the sphere dissolved through Ryoku's chest, burning through the Sage's body, leaving no remains, before burying itself into a tree and fizzling out. Ryoku's body slumped to the floor, his unseeing eyes glazed over.

"What the hell is that?!" Dave screamed angrily, pointing a quivering finger at Rood, who stepped back out of range of the ballistic redneck. "You said it can't use any fucking moves! And that there's a Shadow Ball!"

"No," said Aaron. "My Banette uses Shadow Ball. Normal Pokemon use Dark Pulse. That isn't either! That's nasty!"

"And then there were 4 Shages," Rood said morosely, shaking his head. "The New Team Plasma dream is dying today, at the hands of its own creation..."

"No more..." Bronius muttered determinedly, striding off to lead his Pokemon and all the others who remained from the front line.

The Slendermon stared at its paw briefly as if shocked before, emboldened, it charged up another ball and threw it at the group, who scattered. The Slendermon then turned to the other Pokemon out to fight against it.

"This is insane!" Moses yelled above the noise. "We can't hold this thing back anymore, we need to call for backup or something!"

Suddenly Bronius perked up, jogging back over to them. "Ah ha! Don't vorry! Backup is on the vay!"

"It is?"

"Ja! Remember vat Zinzolin said? He vas not here on his own, a squad of Grunts vas on its vay to assist him."

The light of inspiration dawned on Dave's face. "Oh! So you're sayin' that if we wait and hold that Goddamn Slendermon off for long enough, the Grunts'll be here soon to help."

"Ja!"

"Alright folks. Let's do this!"

Aaron cheered along with the others, but as he turned he saw a horrible sight- his Marowak, the Pokemon he'd had for two years, fending off the Slendermon with her bone club desperately. Sickened and worried, he tried to get her Pokeball as quick as possible to return her away from the beast, but as he tried the claws of the Slendermon sliced Marowak's bone in half. She turned, facing her master, a resigned look on her face, knowing what her fate was, a tear visible beneath her bone mask in the corner of her eye, and the Slendermon's claws stabbed through her chest.

"No!" Aaron screamed, trying to charge forward, desperately wanting something to kill the Slendermon with, but Rood restrained him.

"Don't!" the Dutch Sage warned him, holding him as he struggled. "There'sh nothing you can do!"

"I'm going to kill that fucking thing!" Aaron howled, writhing.

"No!" Rood slapped him, stunning Aaron into silence. "You can't jusht sheek revenge! Too many people have died today becaushe of the old Team Plashma, and I'm not having another one die too!"

As Rood shook some sense back into him, Aaron heard a scream in the distance, Ronnie's scream, and his head whipped around. She was backing away from the Slendermon hurriedly as the monster faced off against her Gengar. Gengar tried to throw a Shadow Ball, but it collided in mid air with another ball of darkness thrown by the monster. More darkness coalesced around the Slendermon, but this time it turned into thin, sharp tentacles that ripped into Gengar's ethereal body and tore the Ghost apart.

"No way," breathed Saskia. "It just killed a Ghost..."

"Gengar..." Ronnie moaned, stepping back, as she hugged Aaron, both in pain at the loss of one of their Pokemon, comforting each other. The Slendermon lost interest, and moved onto a stronger, more heavily armoured target; Bronius' Steelix.

"Ye know, ai'm really getting pissed off waiting for Zinzolin's Grunts," said Gorm, as the Slendermon's claws glanced off Steelix's thick hide with a clang. Steelix responded by slamming its tail against the monster's ribs, to a cracking sound, before Digging underground. "We need backup now."

Giallo suddenly looked enlightened, as if he'd had a sudden brainwave (which he had). "Signore, what about the lab?"

"What about the lab?" Moses echoed.

"Well, all the computers and that, we could email someone..."

"Too slow," said RJ. "Nobody'd get here in time. Plus the power's down, isn't it? The computers won't work."

"Wait, what about Colress' satellite phone?" Rood asked.

Giallo grinned from ear to ear. "Ah-ha! That's eet! That's our teecket to rescue!"

"How did ve forget it?" Bronius said.

"Forget what?" asked Giuseppe impatiently.

"Colress always carried a satellite phone around weeth heem," explained Giallo. "He claimed eet was een case of emergency, but really eet was hees secret way of communeecating with Ghetsees."

"So how does that help us?" Giuseppe asked, still not understanding. Behind him, Steelix erupted from the ground and clamped its giant jaws around the left arm paw of the Slendermon, which roared.

Giallo produced Colress' diary and flicked to the back pages, the last entries. "Colress' diary says 'I left everytheeng behind when I left. The police will never find the Lab, so where better to hide the secrets, undeesturbed for years to come? All my research notes, all the solutions, EVEN MY PHONE holdeeng the conversations with my lord Ghetsees. Only my diary weell come weeth me, for eet is the precious keystone of my research, the epitome of what I have accomplished, the records of what I've done. I will not leave eet behind weeth the rest." Giallo snapped the book shut. "Now do you see?"

"His phone is hidden somewhere within that building," Moses said, as if it was a divine revelation. Behind him the Slendermon had wrestled its arm free of Steelix's jaws, and turned, putting extra force behind the blow, slicing through the thick, no longer impenetrable armour to its skull and brain, immediately making the giant steel serpent brain dead, killing it.

"That's how we get help," Giallo said firmly. "We go to the Lab, find hees phone, and call for help. Police, army, anyone."

"But surely, as a wanted criminal Sage (no offence) the Police aren't going to be very helpful?"

"I don't care, eet's worth s try," said Giallo stubbornly.

"How are we going to get people away to the Lab?" Saskia asked. "The moment we lose people fighting against that thing, it'll slaughter the rest of us!"

"I'll stay and fight it," volunteered Bronius bravely, stoically. "Vhether it kills me or not, I von't stop fighting till the end."

"Ai'm in too," said Gorm, standing beside Bronius. "It dinnae worry me, the wee beastie. Ai'll delay it as long as ai can."

Rood stepped forward. "And me..."

"Nein," Bronius insisted, pushing his fellow Sage away. "Gorm und I vill handle it. Plus, you und Giallo need to go; he knows the most about Colress, his experiments, und the Lab. Und you are the least criminal Sage, the most benign; the Police vill trust you most."

Rood looked tormented, but gave in. "Fine. Thank you, brothersh. May God bleshsh your shouls, and may you have shtrength againsht it."

"Who weell come with me and Rood?" Giallo asked.

"The strongest battlers," said Gorm. "It's vital that you get through and succeed."

The surviving partiers looked at Aaron and Ronnie, and Aaron remembered the Battle Tournament he and Ronnie had won; it seemed like ages ago.

"Alright, we'll go," he said wearily, as they moved to stand beside Giallo and Rood.

"And don't forget us!" Saskia and Dave chorused, moving to stand beside Ronnie and Aaron. "You may have beaten us last time, but we have the strength to do it too."

"And can we take RJ as well?" Ronnie asked. "His knowledge of the computers and lab systems could be very useful."

"Be my guest," said RJ, handing his Pokeballs to Gorm. "Use them well."

Bronius nodded, returned Indigo's Fighting type Pokemon to their Pokeballs, and gave them to Rood. "Here, some extra super effective help."

Rood pocketed them. "Thanksh."

"Now get going," Giuseppe said, patting Aaron on the back. "We're counting on you! We'll hold the Slendermon up as much as possible!"

Without a word, Aaron's group, led by Sage Giallo, turned and ran back up the Route towards Undella Town, no goodbyes said. They had to do this, one desperate last chance to save themselves.

Aaron looked back briefly down the Route, to see the Slendermon summon its shadowy tentacles and spear them through the chest of Sage Bronius. Another one dead, but Aaron wouldn't dwell on that, nor would he dwell on the pain of losing one of his Pokemon. He had to get help from somewhere, no matter what the cost, or everyone would die...

**A/N: One, last gasp mission to get some help for Aaron and co. Will it succeed, and how many more will die before they finally put the Slendermon out of action? :)**

**Next chapter: Discoveries about the Slendermon, a sneaky attack, and success calling for help? Coming soon...**

**Please read and review! Until next time, adios amigos! :D**

**Sharkness**


	11. New Hope

**A/N: Here we are with Chapter 11 folks! :D **

**This chapter will see Aaron and co head back to the Lab in search of a phone, their ticket to salvation, and in search of clues about the monster. We'll also meet a familiar face, and FINALLY find out what Giallo summoned by accident against the Slendermon...**

**On with the show...**

Nobody looked back. Nobody looked behind them as they ran back up Route 14 towards Undella Town. They knew that the Slendermon would be killing, and there was nothing they could do about it. They just had to keep going, and not stop, not stop running as far as possible from the nightmare creature.

As he ran, Aaron felt a horrified respect for those who'd stayed behind. By delaying the Slendermon to allow him and the others to get away, they had sacrificed themselves, and Aaron felt guilty that he was still living while they were dying.

Aaron even felt respect for Sage Gorm and Sage Bronius, who'd resolutely stayed to fight the Slendermon, surrendering themselves to the brutal wrath of a killing machine. The Sages had only known him half an hour at most, and they were giving themselves up for him. And now here he was, running away from the fight between Team Plasma's Sages and Team Plasma's creation.

Sage Rood and Sage Giallo ran beside him, grim faced, looking like they had the weight of the world on their shoulders. Aaron really felt pity for the Sages. Two days ago, he thought that Team Plasma were evil dictators and warmongers, but now he felt sad for the Sages. They had joined Team Plasma truly believing they could do something right and bring about harmony for people and Pokemon. Now, they been made scapegoats of the crimes of Ghetsis' troops, and were wanted men across the region. They'd came to Undella to rescue their reputations and destroy Ghetsis' monster, and half of them were dead. The Sages had lost everything.

Rood turned around mid-run to glance back up the Route. "It'sh not following ush," he said. "We can walk from here."

The group sighed, slowing down, pausing for a breather, but Dave didn't look so happy. "You sure? Ah don't wanna lose ma life cause ah stopped for a rest and didn't see that damn Slendermon 'til it were too late."

"Yeah," said RJ. "Bear in mind that thing used to be a Zoroark. It can make illusions. We might see a clear route, but..." he shuddered, "it might be right behind us."

Ronnie yelped and jumped, spinning round as she felt something touch her back, but it was only a rogue tree branch straying onto the Route.

"Jesus RJ!" Saskia yelled. "Don't try and scare us! That's the last thing we need."

"My God," Ronnie breathed, trying to compose herself, still shaking. "Don't ever do that to me again."

Aaron hadn't noticed all this going on, and was talking to Giallo as they walked. "You Sages can run pretty fast! You know, for old men..."

Giallo laughed. "Ha! Very funny signor. Eet's seemple really. We were criminals, so we had to know how to run fast to stay free. So we could keep going unteel we could start Team Plasma again, thees time as heroes, not veellains."

Rood grinned. "And even if we were criminalsh boy, we had to know how to run. There are two typesh of criminalsh; thoshe who can run fasht, and thoshe who get caught. And ash long ash there'sh a chanshe we can redeem ourshelves, we run."

"Mmm." Aaron's face became serious suddenly. "I'll tell you what. If we survive this, and the police want to arrest you for the crimes of Team Plasma, I'll be a witness for your side. I'll fight for your freedom."

Giallo tilted his head, curious. "Really? You'd do that?"

Aaron nodded. "Yeah. This isn't your mess, this isn't the Sage's fault, this is Ghetsis' work, and yet you want to clear it up. You've sacrificed yourselves for us, even though you don't know us. No villain would do that. You're heroes, and you deserve respect, not the blame."

Rood looked almost tearful. "Do you know how long I've waited for shomebody to shay that?"

Giallo hugged Aaron. "Thank you, my friend," he said, patting Aaron on the back. "As we're now friends and allies, could you eentroduce the others to us? I'd like to know who I'm workeeng weeth against thees Slendermon."

Aaron smiled, pointing and introducing people with their names, before noticing Ronnie, still pale-faced, and before registering the looks on the others' faces. "What happened to you lot?"

Ronnie smiled sheepishly. "RJ scared me, and I got attacked by a tree."

Aaron grinned, hugging her. "You are such a scaredy-cat sometimes."

"She is, but could you take this seriously?" Saskia asked. "People have died today."

The sombre mood returned like a dark cloud.

"Anyway," coughed Giallo, "we are here. Let's go find thees phone and get help. Then we can defeat thees Slendermon."

They were here; the entrance to the laboratory, the gap in the treeline, more forbidding and terrifying than ever before. This was where the Team Plasma lab was hidden, where the Slendermon was created, and where it had it's lair...

Pushing their way through the brambles, the group was greeted by the eerie silence of the shadowy clearing. They hadn't noticed before, but bones were everywhere- Ronnie twitched at the sight of the Tropius carcass, and Aaron accidentally stepped in the mangled remains of a Jigglypuff, the Jigglypuff that had, unknown to him, been the first victim of the monster.

"Dios mios," said Giallo, shocked at the carnage. "Thees ees extreme. How could eet do all thees?"

"Ish thish your friend?" Rood piped up suddenly. The group looked up to see him stood beside the broken body of Kelly, her bones, which had snapped on impact with the tree, sticking out of her body at angles.

"Holy mother of God, it found them," Dave said, shaking his head at the sight. "We told 'em not to hide here."

"Come on," Aaron said, a lump forming in his throat. "We've got to leave her. We need that phone."

Reluctantly the group left Kelly's side and ventured into the lab, where Giallo took the lead. Rood, after nodding to Giallo, headed off to the prison room alone.

"Right," the Italian Sage said, "where are the genes? And where ees Colress' library?"

"Follow me," said RJ, walking into the computer room, before promptly yelling. "Holy shit!"

Everyone piled in to see the body of Seamus, the hole in his forehead where a claw had stabbed through.

"Scared the fuck out of me," RJ said, clutching his chest. "I did NOT expect that!"

Giallo ignored the dead body. "Right..." he paused, trying to remember names. "Dave, Saskia!"

The duo snapped to attention. "He knows our names?"

Giallo smiled. "Meester Rhodes eentroduced you to me. You know my name, eet's fair I know yours. Now, go and get a laptop, see eef you can find any eemportant documents. RJ, search the cupboards, check the gene bottles. Aaron, Ronnie, weeth me. We'll handle the books."

"What are we looking for?" RJ asked.

"Clues. How can we take thees monster down?"

Everyone set to, looking for hints in research notes and hefty genetic engineering books, but it was Aaron who found something- underneath a computer desk, a box full of notebooks labelled 'C. Achroma'.

"Ah-ha!" he yelled. "Colress!"

Ronnie started piling through the box, looking for the phone, while Aaron looked at a particularly large notebook.

Giallo turned to look at Aaron. "Any luck?"

Aaron nodded, face grim. "Colress made this thing a Shadow Pokemon to make it as aggressive as possible."

The Sage tapped his chin. "Hmm. So eef form an emotional bond weeth the Slendermon, eet might calm it down."

"Fat chance that'll happen," grinned Dave. "Ah ain't gettin emotional with that thing. But what about those moves it used?"

"I was getting to that," Aaron said. "Colress says himself that the creature cannot use standard moves. However, a Shadow Pokemon has its own Aura, a Shadow Aura, a corrupt and evil Aura. And what Pokemon can manipulate Aura?"

"A Lucario," RJ said instantly, returning from the other room with a bottle in hand. "And look here. This bottle says 'Luc. Gene 14a. Aura Manip.' The Slendermon knows how to use Aura to attack, and because it's Shadow Aura, it's nasty, and black coloured."

"God that's horrible," said Ronnie. "That thing just keeps on learning new tricks."

"Sho we have a plan," Rood suddenly said from the doorway. "To neutralishe it'sh attacks, neutralishe itsh nashty Aura by being friendly." He held up something that chimed. "A Shell Bell. Improvesh friendship. Colreshsh ushed it to control the creature."

Giallo nodded. "Excellent! Any luck with the phone?"

Rood held up his other hand to reveal a chunky satellite phone. "Next to the body of a dead Mushlim girl and the body of a black guy."

"Rida and Marco," Ronnie said in a hushed voice, shaking her head. "We need to kill this thing. Too many have died."

"And I know jusht the man to help," said Rood, dialling a number into the phone, putting it on speaker so everyone could hear.

After two rings, a male voice answered. "This is Detective Looker of the International Police, currently in charge of the Seven Sages investigation. How may I help you?"

"Looker it'sh me. Shage Rood."

'Looker' paused. "Sage Rood. A pleasant surprise. Why are you calling?"

"And me too," said Giallo.

"Two Sages. Truly I am blessed. I ask again, why do you call me?"

"Because you know we're eennocent. You know that the attempt to take over Unova was the plan of Ghetsees, not the Sages. You know that we seek redemption and respite."

"I do know," said Looker. "The Seven Sages are innocent, and it was all Ghetsis' plan. Do not worry- you will not be charged for any of the mess."

Rood looked confused. "How do you know thish? And why are police officersh shtill purshuing ush?"

"Because I want to take you into protective custody. Ghetsis has confessed that the master plan was between himself and Colress, and that you were pawns, but I need you Sages as witnesses against him. Besides, there is evidence to suggest the Shadow Triad have gone rogue, and are hunting for you on Ghetsis' orders. How he's remaining in charge while being imprisoned I have no idea."

"Becaushe Zinzolin ish on the shide of Ghetshish, acting ash temporary leader," Rood said. "But Zinzolin ish no longer a threat- he ish dead."

"How?"

"I know you know about Colress' secret expereement," said Giallo, cutting in. "PW102."

"Yes, I know about PW102. The once-Zoroark. I received a copy of Colress' diary by email from 'the Italian Stallion ', telling me about it. I take it that was you Giallo?"

"The same. Well, eet escaped. Zinzolin tried to control eet and was keelled. We arrived een Undella to defeat eet, but as far as I know Rood and I are the only surviving Sages. We're here weeth a group of students from Undella who got attacked by eet, but we can't hold out much longer!"

"Not good," said Looker. "If I lose all you Sages, I lose my key witnesses to take Ghetsis down." Looker paused. "I'm coming to help. I'm in Black City with the SWAT team and the rest of the officers. I'll mobilise everyone ASAP."

"Thank you," said Rood sincerely. "Bring the heaviesht weaponsh you have, and only ushe Bug/Fighting type movesh/Pokemon."

"I've got it. Now survive for me. I'm counting on you. Goodbye my friend."

Looker hung up, and Giallo turned to Rood. "Well, eet appears we aren't criminals."

Rood nodded. "Alessandro?"

Giallo perked up at hearing his first name. "Yes Willem?"

Rood smiled. "We'll make it. And we'll beat thish monshter, and we'll beat Ghetshish, and we'll be free."

Giallo grinned, turning to the others. "Help ees on the way!"

Everyone cheered. "Now what do we do?" RJ asked.

"We head back down the Route to our friendsh," Rood said. "We need to help them fight the Shlendermon, and hold it back until Looker arrives."

"Avante!" Giallo shouted, heading towards the door.

"Wait!" Dave said. As everyone paused he turned to Saskia and kissed her full on the mouth. "We may not survive this y'know, but ah wanted to do that in case I die without doing it."

"About time!" RJ yelled, clapping, as Saskia smiled and kissed back.

Aaron's eyes suddenly sparkled, and he smiled. Inspired by Dave, he turned to Ronnie and kissed her on the cheek. "I'm not gonna say we may die. Because I'm not gonna let anything happen to us. We are gonna make it."

Ronnie blushed, turning to him and kissing him. "I love you Aaron."

"Love you too." He offered her his had. "Until the end?" She nodded, and took it.

"Dishgushting," Rood said, miming throwing up.

Giallo rolled his eyes. "You are so eensensitive. Let's go."

Everyone walked out, happier than they had been for a while. But the happiness lasted about 10 seconds...

"Slendermon!" RJ yelled, pointing, as the group noticed the snarling once-Zoroark stood in a gap between the trees. "Run away!"

Yelling and shouting, the group headed out of the clearing. Nobody looked behind them however, as the monster that had scared them flickered and faded out of existence. The illusion had worked, and now they were headed into the trap...

**(*****)**

The group made it to the battleground after sprinting down the road, panting and puffing, to be greeted by the sight of carnage. Bodies of Pokemon were littered everywhere, and the humans weren't far away. Aaron spotted Moses lying face down on the ground, massive claw marks piercing through his back, and the remains of Sage Bronius' ripped-apart body were splattered everywhere. Giuseppe had DISAPPEARED.

Rood looked around at the horror, the only visible sign of life a lone, wild Tropius, busy grazing serenely from a tree, not noticing them. "Holy shit."

"We were too late," moaned Ronnie. "Oh God..."

"Wait!" RJ said. "Look!"

Where Bronius' Rhyperior had fallen, a Rock Tomb attack covered a mound where a human leg was stuck out, and moans were audible. Everyone except Dave and Saskia ran over, pulling apart the rubble to reveal a battered Sage Gorm.

"Gorm, you're alive!" Giallo yelled happily.

Gorm coughed. "Aye, but ai cannae feel or move me legs. Ai think ai'm paralysed. That bastard Slendermon..."

"Jusht hang in there," said Rood, cradling his fellow Sage. "We'll get you out of here."

They were interrupted however by a scream from Saskia. Everyone's head whipped around to a horrifying sight- the benign Tropius had turned, biting its jaws through Saskia's neck and spine before ripping her head off and throwing it away. As her body, oozing blood, slumped to the floor, the Tropius raised its neck to reveal a smooth head with no eyes, before its form flickered and changed back into the being everyone loathed...

"Slendermon!" Dave yelled, furious that he had been tricked by another illusion, despairingly angry at the loss of his girlfriend. As everyone charged forward to help him, Dave pulled a Smith & Wesson revolver from the nearby corpse of Sage Bronius and shot every bullet in it at the monster.

The Slendermon staggered back as two bullets hit home in the shoulder, before a shield of black Shadow Aura rose up and absorbed the other bullets. It roared angrily before releasing the Aura as a wave, striking Dave and splintering every bone in his body at once. Dave's heart gave up from the pain, and he hit the ground, lifeless, beside his girlfriend.

The monster then turned and jumped, using its bandy, muscly hind legs to spring, separating Aaron and Ronnie from the others.

"Shit!" Aaron yelled, but there was no escape. The monster advanced on him and Ronnie, claws extended to maximum length, snarling that primal growl once more. Aaron drew the trembling Ronnie closer to him, kissing her forehead, turning as if to protect her from the beast, and closing his eyes, resigned to his fate.

The Slendermon smiled its gruesome smile again, bearing those terrible sharp teeth, before drawing back the long arm to strike...

Aaron waited, but the blow never came. He opened his eyes, and realised exactly why- as the Slendermon tried to strike, a purple blur had struck it, a blur thatwas now stood in between the Slendermon and the teenagers in a defensive stance.

"So that's what that button deed!" Aaron heard Giallo cry. "Eet released our leettle friend!"

"You sheriously did that?! Good work!" Rood yelled.

"Ha, eet was an accident," said Giallo bashfully. "But Colress forgot emergency countermeasure plan Delta- eef one of them escaped, a Sage could release the other one to combat and destroy the rogue. And thees one weell really want to destroy the Slendermon! We can ween!"

Aaron then realised what the new arrival was, and that it was defending them, emitting a high-pitched whine as it stared down the Slendermon. He grinned- now they had something on their side that could actually defeat the monster. A new hope had arrived, and was facing off against the monstrosity alongside them, a legend itself, and perhaps now they may win.

It was PW101 vs PW102. Legendary vs Slendermon. One Team Plasma creation against the other...

Genesect had arrived...

**A/N: GENESECT! Wahoo! :D and Detective Looker too for good measure. Not the same Looker from 'The Chase' (my other fic), but just as cool!**

**Congrats to those who guessed Genesect would appear, and that Aaron and Ronnie would hook up! They had to really :)**

**Next chapter- Genesect vs Slendermon, but who will win? When will Looker arrive? And where the hell have Zinzolin's troops got to? Coming soon...**

**As always, thanks for reading! Please R&R, and until next time, adios amigos! :D**

**Sharkness**


	12. Clash of the Titans

**A/N: Ta-da! Chapter 12 is here at last! :D**

**Last chapter we saw the long awaited arrival of Genesect, and the prelude of an epic battle between Genesect and the Slendermon, the two Team Plasma weapons. Well, here is that battle, plus the return of a familiar face. I hope you enjoy...**

**On with the show...**

For a moment time stood still on Route 14 as the Slendermon, PW102, and Genesect, PW101, faced each other in battle stances. The wind had picked up again on the Route, and the breeze sent leaves twirling around and between the legs of Genesect, while the black mane of the Slendermon ruffled and waved. It was almost completely silent, except for the low whining from the machinery of Genesect, the occasional whirring of gears, and the clicking tap of the foot-long claws of the Slendermon stood opposite the Bug/Steel type.

For a brief moment Aaron Rhodes lay on the earth watching the scene. The Slendermon had had him and Ronnie cornered, at its mercy, before Genesect had arrived to stand between them and the monster in the nick of time. He should have been dead. Yet he had been saved from the wrath of a Team Plasma creation by another, the original weapon.

For a moment Aaron admired Genesect. Everyone in Unova knew about the Palaeozoic Pokemon; Team Plasma's ultimate creation, a Pokemon weapon like Mewtwo made by Team Rocket before. Unlike the Genetic Pokemon however, Genesect's origins were more difficult. After being revived from a partially complete fossil, robotics and mechanics were needed to keep it alive, turning it into a Bug/Steel type, and a cannon was added to the robo-Bug's back, making it the weapon it was. After that however, N cancelled the project when Genesect was completed, on the grounds that it was a violation of a Pokemon's rights to turn it into a weapon. Genesect was shut down, lost forever in a hidden laboratory. Until now.

Aaron's eyes travelled over the hefty cannon on Genesect's back, over the purple metallic armour, over the two fiery red eyes. It had only been reawakened by accident by Sage Giallo as part of an emergency plan to defeat the Slendermon, the replacement experiment/weapon, but Aaron could see the rage in those red eyes at seeing another Plasma weapon, and an anger that wanted to destroy it.

Only then, at this point, did time start to go back to normal, and Aaron realised that he was prone on the floor 6 foot away from two machines of war and killing, capable of destroying Unova by themselves.

"Run!" he yelled, pulling Ronnie to her feet and bodily pulling her away from the two experiments.

Then all hell was let loose. The Slendermon snarled another primal growl, the Shadow Aura that had turned it into a monster coalescing around it, and tentacles, thin piercing serpentine needles of Shadow, stabbed towards Genesect. The razor-tips slammed against the purple armour, making a noise like heavy rain on a Bronzong, but the armour held strong. Then the Shadow Aura returned to the Slendermon, forming a large ball of negative energy, which smashed into Genesect, denting the armour and pushing the Bug/Steel type back.

Genesect stood firm however, and now it was the Bug's turn. It stepped forward and shrieked, an ear-splitting, deafening high-pitched whine that set hairs on end and made the Slendermon leap into the air as red waves of energy hit it. As it writhed from the pain of the Bug Buzz attack, it roared, before pushing out another ball of Shadow Aura, but Genesect was not there. The Palaeozoic Pokemon Flew into the air, avoiding the attack, before crashing down to earth and barrelling into the Slendermon.

In pain, the Slendermon roared again, and lashed out with its long claws, but the glancing blow clanged off the armour. In return, Genesect charged up an X-Scissor attack, the super effective blow getting past the Slendermon's Wonder Guard to do some serious damage. Genesect tried another X-Scissor, but this time the Slendermon's claws clashed against it, forcing Genesect back, before another slice carved a gash in the Bug/Steel type's armour.

However, before the Slendermon could land another strike with its claws, Genesect kicked out into the stomach of its assailant, pushing the Slendermon away. Then, a whining noise filled the air, as the cannon on Genesect's back charged up to focus on the once-Zoroark, shooting a blast of fire into the Slendermon, singing and burning the black fur.

Across from the epic battle between Plasma experiments, Aaron and Ronnie had reached the other survivors of the Slendermon's rage. Sages Rood and Giallo of Team Plasma, unscathed and unharmed from any attack, were seeing to Sage Gorm, who'd been left paralysed when he was trapped under a Rock Slide from the deceased Sage Bronius' Rhyperior. The Sages were with their friend RJ Devon, class nerd, who was busy watching Genesect vs Slendermon until they turned up.

"Thank God you're alive!" RJ cried, rushing over to them. "I thought the Slendermon was gonna kill you for sure!"

"So did I," Aaron muttered grimly, still reeling from the near-death experience.

"I can't believe we survived when so many people haven't," Ronnie said. "We're actually still alive!"

"Thank Genesect for that," Aaron said, making his way over to the Sages. "If it hadn't arrived in time who knows what would have happened to us."

Giallo looked up as Aaron approached. "That was a leettle beet too close for comfort Aaron. We nearly lost you."

"I know." Aaron pointed at Genesect, as the Legendary fired a bolt of electricity from its cannon that made the Slendermon squirm. "I'm really glad you summoned it."

Giallo smiled. "Ha! Eet was an accident signor. Colress forgot to remove emergency plan Delta- eef one experiment escaped, the other would be released to combat eet. And when I accidentally activated Delta after the Slendermon escaped, well, we gained a warrior that could beat thees monster."

Ronnie ducked as a wayward ball of Shadow Aura sizzled past while she walked towards Aaron. "But surely we shouldn't be leaving Genesect alone to fight it?"

"Why not?" Rood asked. "Geneshect ish the original experiment, a Legendary, hash a type advantage in offenshe and defence and hash a bloody cannon! Plush, it looksh like it'sh winning at the moment!"

"Aye," came the voice of the paralysed Gorm from the ground, "but ye shouldnae underestimate that beastie Slendermon. We did."

All heads turned to Gorm. "What do you mean?" Ronnie asked.

"We thought we were winning against it earlier, briefly," Gorm said. "But ai havenae seem anything that could destroy and kill so much in such a wee amount of time. We lost."

"Yeah, and Genesect has its weaknesses here too," RJ said. "The Slendermon's Shadow Aura may not work, but its claws still do. Physically, its more agile than Genesect, and its muscle strength counters Genesect's brute size. Plus, Genesect keeps trying to use its cannon, which is using a Fire or Electric type move, which doesn't work against a Dark type with Wonder Guard."

All of this dawned suddenly on the rest of the group. You couldn't leave something that had this many weaknesses out against the Slendermon, a killing machine who could find a weakness anywhere on any foe.

"Oh shit," Rood said. "We need to help Genesect."

"Queeckly!" Giallo barked. "Avante! Lets go!"

Everyone except the prone Sage Gorm leapt to their feet, drawing Pokeballs. The super-effective Fighting types of Sage Indigo, Mienshao, Scrafty and Conkeldurr, joined Rood's Emboar, Aaron's Heracross and RJ's Venonat as the group charged forward...

To see a scene of extreme and intense violence. Obviously having been made as Pokemon weapons for Team Plasma, neither Pokemon had decent morals, but the level of damage to each one was stunning. The Slendermon bled from several places, its black mane matted with blood, and it swayed unsteadily occasionally- it had lost all of the claws from its left hind leg, while its right foot toes looked broken. Genesect had huge score marks from claws in its armour, along with several burn marks from impacts of Shadow Aura, and a few dents, while the left red eye was dimmer than usual.

Even despite its injuries though the Slendermon was fighting on like the sociopath it was, and the others arrived just in time to see it smash Genesect with a kick from a broken foot. Leaping and landing unsteadily on top of Genesect on the broken foot, it howled, before claws grabbed the twitching cannon and ripped, the heavy grind of machinery loud as the cannon was torn from Genesect's body. Then, the Slendermon got off the stunned Legendary, bodily throwing it into a tree across the Route, and lobbing its cannon after it.

Aaron stood stunned as Genesect slid down the tree and lay still at its roots, the one Pokemon who could have defeated the Slendermon severely injured. "No!"

The Slendermon reared high and roared triumphantly at the midday sky, as Genesect twitched, broken and battered.

"No..." Ronnie said, unbelieving. "Genesect..."

Giallo's ashen face suddenly became grimly determined. "No... I was the one who woke you against your weell. I brought you here to fight our battle. We are going to ween, and I am not letteeng you die!" He turned. "Aaron!"

"Yeah?!"

"Weeth me! I know how to feex Genesect and save eet! We might ween thees battle yet!"

"We'll hold the Shlendermon off!" Rood yelled, as all Pokemon and everyone else turned to face the vicious monster. "Go Giallo my friend!"

Aaron and Giallo ran to Genesect, to be met by Sage Gorm, who'd used his arms to pull himself across the ground to Genesect. "Ye get on with it! Ai'll stay on guard!"

Giallo picked up the cannon as Aaron cradled the head of the Bug, noticing sadly how those red eyes were fading before him.

"Right," Giallo said, "let's look at thees cannon..."

Genesect's eyes suddenly flickered, and Aaron became aware over the noise of the others battling that there were holographic pictures hanging in the air, projected from the eyes of the robo-Bug. They showed a prehistoric landscape, strange plants growing, Aerodactyl and Archen wheeling in the sky, herds of Bastiodon roaming the land.

"What are you trying to show me?" Gorm murmured, and Aaron thought the same.

The images flickered as the viewpoint changed, looking down at a watery surface upon which was reflected the face of an Armaldo, red-eyed. That Armaldo was obviously seeing this- that was what the images were, the sight and vision of this prehistoric Armaldo.

Then it dawned on Aaron. "That's you?" he asked Genesect.

The Bug nodded weakly, before the Genesect of the past looked up to the sky, to see a fiery ball fall to earth, as the sky darkened from ash clouds- the extinction meteorite that killed prehistoric Pokemon 65 million years ago..

The images then changed, now showing a modern laboratory. The viewer was looking in a mirror, where the purple robo-Bug that was the Genesect of today was reflected. However, this Genesect was chained to the wall, and plugged into several computers.

"Now my beauty," came a soft voice with a malicious tint, "let's see what your pain threshold is, shall we? As Plasma's new weapon, you should be able to stand a lot..."

A blonde-haired young man in a lab coat with an evil smile was reflected in that mirror too, and Aaron recognised his face from a diary; Colress, Plasma's master scientist, and creator of Genesect. At this point, Colress pressed something on a tablet, and the Genesect of then writhed in pain as high voltage courses through it. What got to Aaron more though was the scream- it was audible on the recording, a scream of excruciating pain, hurt and anger, yet it only made Colress smile more, and turn up the voltage...

As the recording died and Genesect's eyes faded to red again, Aaron realised what Genesect was trying to tell him; it had had one life already, a happy life, yet it had been dragged back to become a weapon of man's greed, cruelly abused. It wanted no more, and hopefully by killing the Slendermon Genesect would achieve peace with itself at last.

The people holding back the Slendermon were struggling though. Indigo's Conkeldurr was down, and the Slendermon bit down on Rood's hand, biting it off at the wrist before Indigo's Mienshao sped in to carry the Sage away. Cheated of killing Rood, the monster turned, before seeing Giallo and Aaron attempting to save Genesect. It roared, enraged, charging forward with Shadow Aura twirling around its claws...

Only to be stopped when gunfire cracked and shots fired into its shoulder blades. It writhed as the bullets hit it, before turning, and roaring at a familiar sight...

"Yeah motherfucker!" a beaten, bloody, bruised yet still alive Giuseppe Cagliari shouted, gesturing with the Uzi he'd fired at the Slendermon. "I'm back! And guess who I brought with me! Grunts!"

Aaron was amazed; Giuseppe had fooled the Slendermon, making it think he'd been killed already, when in fact he was fetching some backup...

People in medieval armour started suddenly appearing from the treeline and from both directions of the Route, black and white shield logos with blue 'P's visible on their chests. These were the special troops Sage Zinzolin had sent for to back him up, Team Plasma Grunts. And Giuseppe had not only convinced them to change sides to fight for the Sages, he'd got them there in the nick of time.

"Charge!" Giuseppe yelled. The call was taken up by all 50 of the Grunts, all of whom accompanied by at least two Pokemon, and Team Plasma rushed the Slendermon, who leaped right into the fray and started with the killer claws almost immediately.

Aaron refocused on Genesect. "You really don't like being Plasma's weapon do you?"

Genesect shook its head, at which point Giallo returned with the cannon.

"Look," the Italian Sage said to the Bug, "I know you don't like eet. I never wanted to create you. But we need you- without you, we cannot ween. Please!"

Genesect stared, the red eyes dimming, before it nodded its head resignedly.

Giallo nodded, before attaching the cannon loosely to where it had been torn off. "Okay, let's watch the mageec happen here..."

"What's up with the cannon?" Aaron asked, over the noise of grinding gears.

"Simple. Genesect's cannon, by default, ees set to use Techno Blast, a Normal type move. Eef you put a cassette eento eet, eet changes Techno Blast's type- Douse Drive for Water type, Chill Drive for Ice type, Shock Drive for Electric type and Burn Drive for Fire type."

"So what did you do?"

"I put all four Drives eento Genesect. Wheech activates..." A panel on the top of the cannon flipped open, to reveal a switch. "Ah-ha! Keellsweetch engage!"

"Killswitch?"

"Si! Now Genesect's cannon weell use a laser to attack and keell, rather than a typed move. We can harm the Slendermon at last!"

There was a whirring within Genesect, and Aaron was stunned to see cogs and gets click into place, resecuring the cannon to the Bug's back. Slowly, the lights grew stronger in Genesect's eyes.

"Genesect," Gorm said, "Ai'm sorry we hadtae make ye a weapon again. But we need ye. Look!"

From the ground Genesect took in the scene- with no experience fighting the Slendermon, and with inferior and ineffective Pokemon, the Plasma Grunts had taken a severe beating- at least 25 lay dead at the feet of the monster, and it was hunting more down, while Giuseppe tried to help Rood, Ronnie and RJ coordinate an attack.

"Here," Aaron said to Genesect, offering the Legendary a Full Restore he'd taken from his bag, "you'll need this."

Genesect stared in wonder at the Full Restore, and in shock at Aaron offering it, before taking it. Bathed in a green light, the purple robo-Bug suddenly lurched, eyes gaining brightness, before it rose to its feet, gears whining loudly, and shrieked again. Genesect was back!

The Legendary turned to Aaron, and the metal plates at the corner of Genesect's pith turned up in a robotic smile. At this point the others from the group ran over.

"Giuseppe," Gorm said, "ye're alive!"

"Uh-huh," Giuseppe nodded haggardly, "and I have Ryoku's Pokemon, plus all the other surviving Pokemon I could find. But I'm really sorry I didn't arrive earlier guys- maybe we could have saved Dave and Saskia."

"Don't blame yourself," RJ said. "In fact, now you are here, we can win this fight!"

"And we have Genesect back," cheered Ronnie, the mentioned Bug smiling again. "Let's do this!"

They all turned to face the Slendermon, who finished its brutal murder of the last surviving Plasma Grunt to stare at them, angry at the sight of survivors and at the sight of the revived Genesect.

"Here goes nothing," said Giuseppe grimly, releasing all the Pokemon he had on him, the others all doing the same.

"Today we face the Shlendermon for the lasht time!" Rood yelled.

Genesect shrieked "Sect!" before it fired from its cannon. A pure white beam of energy, different to before, sizzled through the air and struck the Slendermon, burning a hole in the flesh of the shoulder of the monster, making it scream in rage.

"Let's win this now!" Aaron shouted, and the group charged forward, ready to end this battle with the Slendermon once and for all...

**A/N: Ooh Genesect! Don't give up on them buddy, you can beat the Slendermon! :D**

**Next chapter- Genesect vs Slendermon part 2, the loss of something huge, ANOTHER familiar face and... the beginning of the end...**

**Thanks for reading! Please review, and until next time, adios amigos! :D**

**Sharkness**


	13. The Final Straw

**A/N: Well here we are folks, Chapter 13 of Slendermon! :D a wee bit later than I'd hoped, but never mind! Its Halloween, so releasing a new chapter for a horror/monster/scary story is appropriate.**

**The tide has well and truly turned against the Slendermon now, and this is the last big part of a truly epic battle that has drawn itself out over 5 chapters. I hope you enjoy! Now on with the show... :)**

Over the course of three days in Undella Town, the monster known as the Slendermon, PW102, had killed a staggering 67 people. The blood of an entire battalion of 50 Team Plasma Grunts was on its hands, as was the blood of 4 of Team Plasma's Sages and 13 innocent teenagers. It was brutal, savage, vicious and tricky, using its natural Illusion ability to fool its victims and lead them into traps, and utilising its Shadow Aura as a powerful weapon alongside its killer claws. It was a staggeringly good killer, an adversary capable of taking on over 30 Pokemon all at once, and capable of dealing some serious damage to one of Unova's most famous Legendary Pokemon.

But now it was losing...

Genesect, the key weapon in the attack on the Slendermon, had been repaired by Aaron and Sage Giallo, and was now able to deal serious damage with its laser cannon. The opposition now knew about the Slendermon having the Wonder Guard gene; the only actual moves being used against the Dark-type now were Bug and Fighting type moves. Any other Pokemon was using brute force, strength, teeth and talons to pummel the beast into submission, and the attacking Pokemon had learned from their earlier mistakes- they were staying out of range of the claws and fangs of the Slendermon, and quickly got away from it if it jumped towards them. They were actually making headway against it!

Aaron sprinted across the battlefield, watching out for any stray attacks from the Pokemon or the Slendermon. He ducked as a Signal Beam from Genesect scorched over his head and found its mark on the creature, before he ran over to Giuseppe.

"Giuseppe, I'm so glad you're alive," Aaron said. "And I'm glad you made it back."

The criminal smiled, bags visible under his black eyes and scratches from claws on his arms and cheeks, scarred skin from where the Slendermon had obviously attacked him. "I'm glad I'm alive too."

"What happened when we were gone?"

"Not much actually. It looks worse than it was because of all the corpses from earlier. We lost Bronius almost as soon as you left, and me, Moses and Gorm tried our hardest, but when Gorm was taken down I knew something needed to be done."

"So you left for help..."

"Yeah." Giuseppe looked down sadly, trying to hide from Aaron the hint of a tear in the corner of his eye. "Moses sacrificed himself so I could escape to find the Plasma Grunts. My best friend..."

Aaron patted him on the shoulder. "We've all lost someone to that monster. I lost," he gulped, breathing heavily at the memory of his murdered Pokemon, "Marowak."

Giuseppe looked up. "Oh yeah..." he whispered, morosely.

"It tore her apart," Aaron said, nodding. "Everyone's had something taken away from them, by claws or by Shadow Aura."

"But no more," Giuseppe said, a determined look on his face as he slotted more ammunition into his Uzi, his prized weapon from his mobster life. "I'm taking it down."

Aaron suddenly had a thought, watching all the Pokemon of the Sages and partiers attacking the once-Zoroark. "I didn't know this many Pokemon had survived."

Giuseppe nodded. "When we were delaying the Slendermon, I went around to all of the corpses and took every Pokeball I could. I returned every Pokemon I could before the Slendermon got them, so we lost only a few fighters to help against it."

"They're definitely helping turn the tide of battle in our favour. That monster's on the back foot."

"It would be even further on the back foot had the Team Plasma Grunts succeeded against it." Giuseppe paused, mortified. "Holy shit. I've just realised I'm responsible for leading 50 people to their death."

Aaron shook his head. "No you're not. Zinzolin was dead, so they could have gone, but all you convinced them to do was change sides to the other Sages and fight the Slendermon. If they had been prepared and wary of it, they might not have all been killed so quickly."

"Thanks Aaron." Giuseppe suddenly smiled. "I noticed you and Ronnie..."

Aaron went red. "Yeah. The one time I actually get a girlfriend and we both get attacked by an urban legend, and saved by a Legendary."

"Ha!" Giuseppe barked. "That'll be something to tell the grand kids." He stood up, gesturing to Aaron. "Let's go help the others."

Aaron nodded as they returned to the fray, and already he noticed the Slendermon's knees buckling under the pressure of so many attacks. Sage Indigo's Mienshao Bounced in to Mach Punch it several times, but as soon as Mienshao moved RJ's Venonat was in there to hit with a Bug Bite to where the Slendermon's nose would have been if it had facial features. RJ's Venonat then stepped back as a goldish light enveloped it, before after 20 seconds a newly evolved Venomoth took to the air and rejoined the attack. When one Pokemon stopped attacking, another took over, and the Slendermon wasn't allowed a chance to get back up and recover.

Ronnie's Excadrill sharpened her claws off to one side as her Trainer applied a Hyper Potion to her, and Sage Giallo was busy with a Revive. As he moved, Aaron noticed the Pokemon down was Ryoku's Scizor, one of the strongest Pokemon against the Slendermon, who had taken a nasty clawing to the face and torso.

As Scizor got back up, refreshed, Ronnie saw Aaron and got up to hug him, as her Excadrill ran back into the carnage. "Its working!"

"I know!" Aaron said jubilantly. "Its actually struggling!" He paused. "Where's Genesect?"

RJ gestured, pointing. "Over there! It's doing great!"

Aaron looked where RJ was pointing, to see Genesect in the middle of everything. 5 minutes ago its cannon had been ineffective against the Slendermon, and the Bug had been thoroughly beaten, in urgent need of repairs. Now however it was leading the charge, the killswitch on the cannon activated to prime a laser beam that heavily damaged the Slendermon with every bolt. Plus, with its super effective attacks and heavy armour protection, Genesect was an ideal opponent for the nightmare.

"Eet seems to be working much better now," Giallo said. "Ever seence we fixed the cannon, Genesect hasn't stopped hurting the Slendermon!"

"Good!" Sage Rood said grimly. "The shooner we take that bashtard down the better."

Aaron turned to face Rood. The Dutch Sage had been fending off the Slendermon when it had bitten his left hand clean off at the wrist, leaving only a jagged, bloody stump, but leaving Rood with his life. He was pale-faced and grimacing, obviously in pain, but Rood was fighting on against the monster. "How's your hand now?"

Rood shrugged. "It'sh shtopped bleeding ash much now at leasht. It hurtsh like hell, but I'll be fine."

Aaron had a stroke of inspiration. Delving into the pocket of his trenchcoat he pulled out his grey scarf, wrapping it around Rood's stump. "Here, keep it protected."

Rood smiled at him, before groaning as some blood seeped into the scarf's fabric from the gaping open wound. "Ah! Thank you!"

Aaron turned to Giallo, worried. "He needs a hospital quickly."

"As do ai," said Sage Gorm from the floor, paralysed from the waist down when trapped under a wayward Rock Slide. "Ai fear ai willnae be able to feel me arms in an hour or two."

"Then we need to get this over and done with," said Giuseppe.

"Yeah!" Aaron yelled. "Let's kill the bastard!"

The group cheered, before they set to attacking the Slendermon. Aaron only had his Heracross out on the field, so he focused on directing Heracross, getting him to think about his moves and mix it up. Heracross was a strong battler, but was also very headstrong and reckless, so a couple of times he nearly got too close to the scything claws for comfort.

Suddenly the Slendermon roared, snarling that terrible snarl once again before it leaped into the air with a high pounce, having enough of being in the middle.

"Mierda! Get out of there everyone!" Giallo yelled, and most of the people and Pokemon got out of the way. RJ however was trapped in the crowd of stampeding Pokemon, and the Slendermon landed on him, the force of impact from the outstretched, muscly legs slamming RJ down into the ground and straight into the solid-rock armour of the corpse of Sage Bronius' Rhyperior. RJ's head cracked open at the back as he hit the boulder-covered skin, and his eyes rolled back in his head as he slumped forward.

RJ's Venomoth shrieked in rage, angry at the sight of its fallen master, diving out of the sky straight at the monster in a kamikaze run. A Bug Bite managed to clamp down on a left paw claw and tear it off, before the Slendermon screamed in pain and punched Venomoth away with the other paw, sending it spiralling away in a cloud of blood to plummet to the ground with a broken wing.

"RJ!" Giuseppe yelled, charging forward at the sight of the fallen nerd, not wanting another of his friends dead at the hands of the Slendermon. He pulled his Uzi and slammed his finger down on the trigger, as he emptied the gun into the torso of the monster.

The Slendermon writhed as the bullets hit home, but somehow none found a fatal point. It roared in agony, before the Shadow Aura tentacles whipped up and charged at Giuseppe, ripping his Uzi from his fingers forcefully, breaking his thumb. At its mercy, Giuseppe watched the tentacles recoil, before charging back forward, needle-like points aiming for his chest...

Only for the Shadow Aura to dissipate, flicker and fade out of existence before it hit him. The Slendermon looked as puzzled as a creature with no face could look, before it snarled, trying to summon more tentacles, but these ones jittered and broke in mid air. Then when it tried to summon a ball of Aura and throw it, the first one exploded back in its face, making it scream in pain.

"What the hell..." Aaron breathed, not believing his eyes as the Slendermon tried to summon yet another ball of negative energy. Normally a rippling inky-black and sizzling, the latest ball was patchy, and broke up in flight halfway to Giuseppe.

"That'sh it!" Rood suddenly shouted, and everyone turned to him. "The Shell Bell! It'sh working!"

"But how?" Giallo asked, confused. "I thought you had eet?"

"I did. Then that shtupid Shlendermon bit off my hand, the hand holding it!"

"It swallowed what made it weak," Aaron said, grinning and understanding- Rood had lost his hand to the creature, but in its rage the creature had also swallowed the Shell Bell, which immediately started making it friendlier. As it became friendlier, its Shadow Aura lost power and evaporated, and now the Slendermon had destroyed it's own main weapon.

"Take that ye silly bugger!" Gorm yelled defiantly from the floor. "That'll teach ye to mess with us!"

The monster looked outraged at the loss of its main weapon, but it extended its claws to full length and continued heading for RJ's body. However, a high-pitched whine sounded through the air, and the Slendermon looked up to see the heavy, armoured Genesect stop Flying and fall on it, knocking it to the floor. Genesect's cannon powered up before it shot a bright-white laser beam through the groin of the monster, sending it staggering backwards. As the monster howled in pain, Genesect picked up RJ's body and Flew back off, dropping RJ next to Gorm.

Gorm checked RJ over from the floor. "He's still alive! Granted, he's heavily unconscious, possibly in a coma, but it didnae kill him!"

Aaron and Ronnie wasted no time celebrating the survival of RJ, instead heading back towards the Slendermon. Heracross and Mienshao were pummelling the wounded Plasma experiment, and great big burned holes were appearing in its body as Genesect fired its laser, recharged and fired again, not letting the once-Zoroark get back up again.

Other Pokemon were joining in too, and the head of a Steelix suddenly appeared to clamp down on the Slendermon's foot with heavy metal jaws, the crack of bones like a gunshot.

"No way," Ronnie said, seeing the Steelix, turning to Giuseppe. "Is that Bronius' Steelix? I thought it was dead!"

"It is," Giuseppe replied, pointing over to the treeline where the body of Bronius' giant metal serpent lay. "The fighting one's Dallas' Steelix, one of the Pokemon I took off a corpse. Just as strong a fighter though."

"Oh." The surviving Pokemon of all the Sages were joining in now, attacking the Slendermon with everything they had. RJ's Venomoth was vicious, rivalling the Slendermon itself for battlefield brutality, eager to avenge its Trainer, and Giuseppe's trio of Shiftry, Krookodile and Liepard were getting stuck in too. Blood was running once more across the floor of the Route- however, this time it was the blood of the Slendermon, not of its victims.

Giuseppe's Liepard lashed out with sharp claws at the monster's face, clawing at the blank skin covering the eye sockets. The skin ripped and tore, and Aaron saw beneath it all lay the creature's eyes; the whites were a deep black like the rest of the monster, and horrible red irises surrounded the black pinprick pupils. They were eyes fit for a killer, eyes full of malice and evil, eyes that belonged in a creature that had enjoyed the massacre of innocents. And another slash from Liepard took one of those eyes out...

That was the last straw for the monster. In extreme agony and an unbelievable state of rage, it roared out to the sky, before extending its arms and slicing through the throng surrounding it with the foot-long butcher-knife claws. Giuseppe's Liepard was first hit, yowling and collapsing as its ribcage was torn through, closely followed by Rood's Dragonite and Saskia's Smoochum, recently released by Giuseppe as he fetched her Pokeballs from her corpse to increase numbers. Heracross dodged the scything, vengeful blades by the length of a Liepard's whisker, but didn't dodge the punch that followed from a balled fist, knocking him out from only a glancing blow.

The wildly-swinging arm was soon stopped though by Rood's Emboar- using its weight and its signature Heat Crash move, Emboar jumped down onto the arm of the monster, driving it into the floor and snapping the bones at the joints. Soon joined by Bronius' Gigalith and Tyranitar in jumping on it, the heavy Pokemon completely shattered the sinewy, muscly arm, putting it out of action and snapping the claws off the paw.

Screaming again, the Slendermon screamed harder when Ronnie's Excadrill erupted out of the ground to use her own razor-sharp blades and slice the monster's broken foot clean off, while at the same time a Flamethrower from Saskia's Ninetales set the black mane alight, burning brightly. Excadrill quickly Dug back underground as the Slendermon instinctively tried to stamp on her with the other foot, but Dave's Mawile clamped her jaws down on the other one, tearing at the flesh, before Genesect fired a laser through the knee joint, searing that leg off too.

Down to only one fully usable limb left, the Slendermon lashed out with its left arm, claws aiming for anyone nearby, catching Gorm's Cloyster full in the face through the shell and killing it, before also slicing through the neck of the Scottish Sage's Gyarados. However, when it brought the claws back around to carve through Moses' Dewott, the arm was caught in mid air. Glaring up and spinning around as best it could with 3 injured/destroyed limbs, the Slendermon came face to face with its old foe; the revived Drapion of Sage Zinzolin, back after being knocked out in the original battle by the monster, and thirsty for revenge.

The Plasma experiment snarled the primal, fear-inducing growl once more as it tried to force its arm free from the grasp of Drapion's 3 pincers (both arm pincers, along with the tail pincer, were latched on). Drapion however grunted, a bead of sweat forming on its brow, as it pulled back against the Slendermon, battling it all the way. Slowly, steadily, the stalemate ended as the already injured and weary Slendermon lost all fight and energy. Drapion cried out, triumphantly, before it grinned savagely and wrenching its pincers, ripping the arm off at the elbow.

As blood flowed like high tide on a river, the Pokemon dropped the battered and torn Slendermon carelessly to the ground, to lie in a pool of its own gore. Aaron, watching from the sidelines, felt momentarily sick that Pokemon who he'd never have thought were capable of such brutality could do this. But then he reminded himself of the brutality of the sociopathic Slendermon; how it had tried to kill him and his girlfriend, how it had killed 4 Team Plasma Sages who wanted little more than redemption, how it had taken the life of his Marowak, many other Pokemon and around 70 humans. It was unreal how much torture and carnage the creature had caused. It deserved this.

Aaron felt in the pocket of his trenchcoat as he walked forwards towards the defeated monster, and pulled out a Desert Eagle pistol. He remembered Giuseppe giving it to him that morning as protection, and how long ago that all seemed. Perhaps if he'd used it sooner, some lives may have been saved. But survival had been at the front of his mind as soon as he saw the nightmare being, not guns. And he'd survived.

Ronnie held his left hand as he stood over the mangled body of the 10 foot tall Slendermon, the Desert Eagle in his right hand, the other humans and Pokemon joining him in a circle around it. Genesect whined and whirred, its cannon focused on the beast who'd nearly beaten it. Giallo and Rood stood silently, staring at the creature who'd nearly destroyed their hopes of redemption. The others stood looking at a monster, a vicious killer who'd nearly destroyed them all, who had taken away so many lives in such a short space of time.

The Slendermon, its face scarred and bloody, its mane singed to ashes, a burned crisp, looked up into Aaron's eyes, and Aaron still saw the rage in the red eyes of the monster. It still wanted to rip them all limb from limb, it wanted their blood, it wanted to kill even as it lay dying.

Aaron raised the gun to the monster's head, placing it square between the eyes. "You'll kill nobody else now, Slendermon."

The Slendermon defiantly roared, that primal growl that made Aaron's bones quiver, but his aim did not move an inch. Aaron pulled the trigger of the Desert Eagle calmly, seven times, emptying the gun between the eyes of the monster, into its brain. The evil light of those eyes flared an angry red once more from the pain before they quickly dimmed and paled to black, the life evaporating from them as the eyelids closed over them for the last time.

Genesect shrieked loudly, firing a laser blast from its cannon through the head of the Slendermon, burning through where its brain was just to make sure, and the monster slid lifeless to the floor, a corpse to join the field of so many humans and Pokemon corpses it had made.

Aaron looked up into the sky along the Sages, partiers and Pokemon, breathing heavily in elation and relief, standing over the wrecked corpse of the once-Zoroark, the monster, the nightmare beast, PW102. Pidove tweeted in the trees and a light breeze rustled the leaves in the Route, as peace and calm returned once more to the world. For the Slendermon was finally dead.

**A/N: So, after 13 chapters of carnage, 67 humans dead, countless Pokemon murdered and several people wounded, Slendy is dead! :O But this is not the end folks- there's still one more chapter, one last hurrah, an epilogue, so stick around! Its coming soon! :)**

**Thanks for reading! Reviews are always appreciated! And until next time, adios amigos! :D**


	14. No More

**A/N: Well here we are folks, the last chapter of Slendermon :'( its been two months of great fun writing this, and two months of me wondering how I'm going to kill off a character next with Slendy. However, Slendy's dead, and the clearup is now underway. **

**Don't despair though- Aaron and Ronnie, along with Giallo, Looker, Giuseppe and a few others, will return in 'Tremors', my new Fanfic that I've just released! :) if you still want your monster fix from me, head there! :)**

**I hope you enjoy this, the final chapter, and I hope you like it as a finale! On with the show...**

The rain fell slowly on Route 14, huge drops that splashed on the leaves of the trees like miniature explosions of water. The water was forming puddles already on the ground, and streams of fast flowing water washed away the blood that had covered the Route. There was no screaming to be heard, no sickly noises of death, no snarls to induce bone-trembling fear into victims- the chaos had gone, replaced by a serene calmness. The patter of rain, the rustling of leaves, the cries of bird Pokemon- normality had been restored to the Route at last.

It had been an hour and a half since the Slendermon had been finally brought to its knees and killed, and Aaron Rhodes, sat on a fallen log under one of the trees on the Route (part of the treeline the Slendermon had used oh so often to hide in), felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders. The waves of relief that struck his body as he pulled the trigger to deliver the fatal shots were immense, and the adrenaline high from running and fighting had finally calmed down. Now came sorrow, regret that he couldn't have saved more of his friends, and an almost hollow emptiness- what did he do now? Where did he go from here? What happened next?

Ten minutes after he had used the Desert Eagle pistol given to him by Giuseppe Cagliari to shoot the beast, the salvation they had needed before had arrived- the Police. Police agents were horrified when they saw the carnage of the Route, the scattered bones and body parts the Slendermon had ripped from its victims, the blood that ran with its own tide from treeline to treeline. Then they actually came face to face to the killer itself; the super-long teeth and claws on the torn-off, bandy black limbs, the broken body, and the defiant snarl on the lips of the sinisterly, psychotically evil face. They were shocked. But they'd got on with what they needed to do- clear up the mess.

Policemen kept the press and media away from the scene, shutting off the Route, the secret laboratory and the Pokemon Centre in Undella Town. Ambulances had been called immediately to the scene to fetch RJ, Gorm and Rood and take them to hospital in Black City, and a Nurse Joy had arrived from Lacunosa Town Pokemon Centre to tend to the not-as-seriously injured people and Pokemon, the survivors of the bloody rampage of the once-Zoroark. Scene-of-crime officers had collected evidence as the blood was washed away, photographing the results of the wrath of the Slendermon, taking bits and pieces from the laboratory it had been born in. They had even interviewed all of the survivors thoroughly, including Aaron, to obtain information, although they had done this with tact; they were more than aware of the traumatic effects the survivors would feel as a result of this dark day.

Ronnie was the last one to be interviewed by the Police, and Aaron saw her emerge from the temporary tent-like structure erected as a on-scene Police HQ, visibly shaken. The hints of the tears she'd shed remained; it had been obviously been difficult for her to describe the full horror of what the Slendermon had done. Aaron realised that 72 hours ago he had been on the back of his friend Ollie's Staraptor, returning home to Unova to simply go to a party, not knowing what he was going to do afterwards. It had been around 60 hours since he had first met Ronnie, his now-girlfriend; who would have guessed they would be thrown together in such horrific circumstances?

He rose off the log as she approached him and enveloped her in a hug, kissing the top of her forehead, not caring about the large droplets of rain that sploshed on his ears and hair. "Its over now," he whispered, gripping her tightly. They were safe from the Slendermon's wrath at last.

She looked up into his eyes, a deep, morose sadness filling her green eyes; Aaron remembered the battle contest around 48 hours ago, when those eyes had sparkled with happiness at winning. "So many people died Aaron..."

He looked over to where the monster had finally been slain, a cross scratched into the earth by a claw, marking the spot as a deluge of rainwater washed the blood around it away. "Its over," he repeated. "Here and now, we are alive. We survived the Slendermon."

"The others weren't so lucky," she said.

"I know. But we were. And we will always remember the sacrifice they made for us."

They kissed again, slower this time, before looking up to see a man emerge from the tent and start walking across to them. He was quite tall, with black hair combed over into a fringe that hung above deep brown eyes, and wore a long brown overcoat over a white shirt, with a burgundy waistcoat, black tie and black trousers/shoes. He was Detective Looker of the International Police, the man Rood had called for help, and now the man in charge of the cleanup.

Aaron found Looker quite nice in interviewing; he was very sympathetic, reasonable, and eager to do anything he could to make things better for them. He also had a Sinnoh Pokemon as his partner, a Croagunk, a Pokemon Aaron hadn't seen in a while. This Croagunk acted very cool though, and appeared to be a lot more intelligent than other Pokemon- as Looker walked over to them, Croagunk was perched on his shoulder like a pirate's Chatot, having a cigarette.

Looker ducked under a large leaf that was providing a natural umbrella against the rain. "Aaron, Ronnie. How are you two now?" he asked, looking worried.

Aaron looked up. "Alright I guess," he said. "Glad it's over. Can we have a word?"

Looker nodded. "Sure." He sat down on the log beside Aaron, then sighed. "Croagunk, put that out. You know what I've said about you smoking."

Croagunk blew a smoke ring in his face before putting it out on Looker's overcoat, burning a black mark onto the fabric.

Aaron found himself smiling for a moment, the first time in a while. "Nice Pokemon."

Looker rolled his eyes. "He can behave sometimes I swear. What did you want to talk about?"

"The others. Survivors and... victims."

Looker noticed the pained pause. "Don't worry about the victims. Their families have been informed, and we'll hold a mass funeral for them as soon as this is all cleared up. We're planning a memorial to them all, perhaps a statue in the centre of Undella Town, for everyone to remember."

Ronnie nodded. "They'd like that. A permanent reminder about the evils of man, what we can create."

"Something along those lines," Looker said. "However, it won't be a monument against the Slendermon."

"Why?"

"Because the public is still reeling from the revelation that Plasma created Genesect, a Legendary Pokemon still 'on the loose'. There would be huge panic if we revealed there was another, stronger monster they created."

"So what are you going to do?" Aaron asked.

"Simple. As soon as we're finished with it, we'll burn the body of the Slendermon, leaving no evidence of its existence. Then we'll say the deaths and horror of here were caused by Sage Zinzolin controlling Genesect for Ghetsis, and that Genesect was finally killed along with Zinzolin. Zinzolin can't testify against that, we won't give Ghetsis a chance to, and people will think Genesect is dead, meaning it can live its life in peace. No more Legendary hunters."

"Is that right? Blaming Genesect for something it really didn't do?"

"In my eyes, its better than people still going after Genesect, and worrying about this experiment. They'll wonder whether Plasma left it at just one more monster, or whether there are more."

Aaron nodded. "Okay, I can just about see that."

"As for Pokemon," Looker continued, "the deceased Pokemon will be buried with their owners. They deserve a proper grave like that, for fighting to the death."

"Marowak," Aaron said mournfully, remembering his Pokemon's sacrifice. "And Ronnie's Gengar..."

"I know," Looker said, patting him on the back. "The surviving Pokemon though, the ones who don't have an owner, are being put into Giallo's PC boxes, for him to access after we finish the Team Plasma case. He knows what's best to do with them, especially the other Sages' Pokemon. I wouldn't be surprised if he sends you a couple of them, as you are now two of his best friends for saving his reputation."

"Speaking of Giallo, what's happened to the others?"

"Well, as you know RJ Devon was rushed to hospital in Black City immediately for treatment."

"And?"

"He's alive. But, he is in quite a deep coma. Put it this way, being hit by a truck would have done less to him. He isn't likely to emerge from that coma for around 6 months, and there's a 33% chance that sometime before that the hospital will have no choice but to turn his life support off."

Aaron shook his head. "My God..."

"Tell the hospital they're not turning his life support off," Ronnie said. "It isn't what he would want, and besides, he's been through all this today. Turning him off afterwards would be heartless."

"I agree," nodded Looker. "Sages Rood and Gorm were also rushed to hospital with him. Rood has had to have his arm amputated at the elbow to prevent infection of the wound, and Gorm is paralysed from the waist down, and will be in a wheelchair, on medication for the rest of his life. They're tough old men though."

"Giallo hasn't got a scratch," Aaron said.

Looker smiled. "He always makes it out perfect and untouched. They'll all be needed in a week though. We're finally beginning the trial of the leading Team Plasma members."

Aaron's head shot up, alarmed. "You better not put the Sages on trial! Four of them died, sacrificing themselves to give us a chance, fighting for redemption and to stop their leader's creation!"

"I know," Looker said. "Based on the evidence we'd collected already, I knew the Sages were innocent, and this proved it beyond doubt today. All except Sage Zinzolin will receive full acquittal from Team Plasma's crimes. You have my word."

"They're brave old men," Ronnie said. "They deserve their freedom."

"Anyway," Looker said, nodding, "then we come to Giuseppe. You both know he was a criminal, but did you know he is second in command of the Deliano Corporation, Unova's second biggest criminal gang after Team Plasma?"

"What?" Ronnie said, shocked. "No way!"

"Yes way," Looker said. "Quite the criminal mastermind, Mr Cagliari. There are a few warrants outstanding for his arrest, for theft, burglary and arson crimes, so he's been taken into Police custody."

"After all this, you've arrested him," Aaron said hollowly.

Looker grinned. "Who said I've arrested him? After police discussion, we're cancelling the warrants and wiping his criminal records, on the grounds of him going through all of this. As part of the deal however he's agreed to become our Police mole in Deliano. If he can get enough info for us, we can take down Deliano for several crimes, and when we take down Plasma too, we'll have destroyed Unova's two biggest gangs. The Police always win."

Aaron found himself smiling- Looker was smart, and knew exactly what to do. Before he could speak though he heard a high-pitched whine from the treeline behind him, and turned around to see Genesect standing there. "I'd wondered where you'd gone!" He stood up and hugged the robo-Bug. "Thank you for today. You saved my life several times against that monster."

Genesect nodded, a smile on the metal lips, a bright happiness in the fiery red eyes, before it hugged Ronnie too.

"Wow," Looker said, impressed. "So this is the Legendary Genesect, the Pokemon who took down the Slendermon."

Genesect bowed stiffly to him, and Croagunk gave it a mock salute. Genesect then went into Aaron's pocket and came out with his Xtransceiver, plugging one of its fingers into the USB port. The red eyes flashed for a second, before the Palaeozoic Pokemon handed it back to Aaron.

Aaron was bewildered at first, before he looked in his contacts and discovered a new one- 'Genesect'. Ringing it, he saw Genesect's eyes flash red, as the Nokia ringtone came from within the purple armour, and Genesect's eyes suddenly projected a hologram into the air, a hologram of Unova, with a red flashing dot on Route 14.

"Very good," Looker said, smiling. "Do you understand Aaron?"

"Its a helpline," Aaron said, grinning, as Genesect nodded, also smiling.

"Correct," said Looker. "If we're to go ahead with the only-one-monster plan, Genesect can't go with you, even though it wants to. It has to stay in hiding. When you ring Genesect's number however it'll be able to locate you in Unova and head to you to help."

Aaron swelled with happiness; he had the allegiance of a Legendary Pokemon, the dream of so many Trainers worldwide. "Wow! Thank you Genesect!"

"Sect!" the Bug said proudly, waving before it jumped into the air, the cannon on its back acting as a rocket to Fly away. Genesect was gone.

"So what now?" Aaron asked, as the Bug's silhouette dwindled in the sky, to replaced by a Police helicopter that hovered, before landing out on the Route.

"Now, we begin the case of Unova vs Team Plasma," Looker said, getting up and speaking up over the noise of the chopper. "The press will be after you two for a while, to ask what really happened in Undella. I recommend you take a holiday."

"What?" Ronnie asked, confused.

"You heard me. You can relax for a while, destress after your traumatic experiences here, and hide from the press. Ease yourselves back into normal life."

"Really?"

"Really." Looker smiled. "I tell you what, the new luxury Desert Resort hotel is open to the public on Route 4, and I can book you two a room. I'll even pay for it. Call it... witness protection from the Police."

"Thank you," said Aaron sincerely, shaking Looker's hand.

"Don't mention it. Now, come on. We need to finish everything off here first, and that will probably take about two days. You can sleep in comfy beds at HQ, then tomorrow you can go off and relax on holiday. Stop thinking about all of this."

"I'll never forget it," Ronnie said, shaking her head. "The horror, the sacrifices, the blood..."

"No, never forget it. Just put it out of your mind for a while."

Ronnie looked at Aaron, who nodded. "Okay," she said. "Let's go."

Looker smiled, and turned, Croagunk on his shoulder beckoning them to follow. Hand in hand, Ronnie and Aaron walked towards the open door of the helicopter, away from the Route where so many of their friends and so many Pokemon had died at the hands of a monster. And, just before getting into the helicopter, just before leaving it all behind, Aaron turned, looking back on the once-battleground for the last time. He would never forget the fight against the once-Zoroark, Team Plasma experiment PW102, the nightmare creature known as the Slendermon...

**A/N: That's it. Its over.**

**Thank you to all of you who have read this story. I never thought an M-rated fic would get over 1000 views, especially an author's first fic, but it has. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it :)**

**Thank you to all who've reviewed so far with positive reviews, to all who've taken part in my 'Guess the Slendermon' competition, and to all who have followed/favourited the story. So much positivity was brilliant, and you are all superb. You guys are what make me love writing Fanfiction :)**

**And finally, I'd like to say a special thank you to EchoingBreeze, without whom this would never have come about. Echo, you are a brilliant girl. You inspired me to overcome my writer's block, to follow through with an idea for a Fic, and to write this story. You helped me with OCs, helped me when I was stuck with plot direction and above all offered priceless support and guidance to a fledgling author. You deserve to have this fic dedicated to you! You are amazing! :D**

**Thanks for reading folks! Please leave a review, and I hope you enjoyed Slendermon! :D**

**Sharkness**


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